The son of Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka has weighed in on the debate about whether his father should have been forced to move from an aeroplane's window seat by a much younger man.

The incident inspired a lot of social media commentary earlier this week as some interpreted it as the youth of Nigeria standing up for themselves. It began to take on a metaphorical edge as it was seen as a microcosm of Nigeria today.

It seems that Soyinka, 84, mistakenly sat in the window seat and was later told to move by the person who had been assigned the seat. A nearby passenger relayed the incident on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

@professorwolesoyinka #celebrategreatness #relationshipsmatter met one of the greatest Nigerians walking the earth today and as with other times, he was genteel, witty, forthright and humble. My smile gives me away as he permitted the picture whereas he would have preferred to get back to his newspapers. Then we boarded the flight and after assisting him with his bags, he took the window seat and promptly started reading again. A few minutes later this young man, baseball cap, t-shirt to show his muscled chest and tattooed biceps boards the plane and tells Prof he is on his seat (which he was). Those of us including the cabin crew tried to reason with Bobo Fine to let the old man be but the chap refused. He insisted Prof should vacate his window seat, which the old man quietly did for his original aisle seat next to him. I couldn”™t understand how we got to this point where we no longer have respect for elders, even if are so ignorant of the great global personalities in our midst. Is it too much to ask that an elderly man be allowed to remain in a seat allotted to you in the same business class cabin and the same row? Na wa o!

A post shared by Tonye Patrick Cole (@tonyepatrickcole) on Jun 23, 2019 at 7:52am PDT

Now Soyinka's son, Olaokun Soyinka, has written a letter to take issue with the "social media warriors" who have congratulated the young man who made the Nobel Laureate move.

"Do our online youths see it as a badge of honour to avoid the courtesies that we see traditionally extended to our elders?" he asks.

Giving up a space for an older person is not only convention but common sense, he adds, as we will all be old one day.

Then relating how his father fought for the democratic rights of Nigerians Olaokun Soyinka says "respect for our senior citizens is also about history".

So my elderly father mistakenly sat in the wrong airplane seat, & moved when asked.
It was a non-event until Mr Tonye Cole did an Instagram post about respect.
I thought I'd write to Mr Cole & share a memory about WS & an airline drama when he was shown great respect indeed. pic.twitter.com/Ix1VtkgOuy

— Olaokun Soyinka (@olaokun_s) June 26, 2019