The legal profession is no doubt one conservative nay regimented calling that abhors add ons save the efforts by the nascent generation of lawyers to import conducts that are alien to the call into same.
"Salutation is not love" is as epigrammatic as it is an African saying that evokes no less wits.Yet as Africans, we are duty bound to respect our elders without recourse to class and position bestowed on us by providence.Though we live in a world where today respect is thrown overboard, to imagine that a young man would wait and infact take a greeting from his elder without qualms all for being a senior at the Bar,for me is ludicrous.One may tag this writer an alarmist or anything to that effect but my humble question is:can someone be any less a senior if he says a greeting to someone he is certain is his elder? I beg not to be misunderstood. An elderly person and infact a lawyer can actually greet his much younger colleague at first sight.Respect and greetings are basically reciprocal. That said, my take is with "seniors" who feel that seniority imbues them with that ignominy to wait for greetings from their biological elders.
I have certainly seen SANs encapsulated in humility and who are always the first to greet their natural elders.That is humility and Africaness,if you ask me.I would have gone ahead to name names but.
Meeting a very old "junior" at the bar and leaving your seat for him knowing his health challenges wouldn't remove anything from the height a" tall" senior has placed himself.While this writer would not want to sound clannish in any form while on this treatise, our colleagues from the West can at best tell this writer whether the craze for seniority has robbed the Yoruba of their age long unrepentant virtue of respect to elders.This appalling trend is more visible where this writer practice. This writer hopes the North is still intact.
It is enough that one is a lawyer.It is even a necessary evil that comes with its own challenges when the unmarried female lawyer is concerned. Most men with faint heart often get jittery when faced with a female lawyer,much more the face frowning type who hardly greets. However, to the unmarried lady who actually desires to be taken to the alter,what section of our laws will be offended if greeting ones elder is embraced?
This writer does not know if his being from the old bloc dealt blows on his reasoning and present war on stupid globalization. If not,were there not years during which ladies were approached and eventually married only for their greeting habits?
Being discipline only when ones principal is involved for me is self serving. One must be responsible.
Respect is golden. To say otherwise is to depart from the norm.We must not "westernize" our traditional values one of which is respect to our elders whatever our position.
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