Vice-President Professor Yemi Osinbajo has shared his experience at a landlord’s hands when he was about to get married.
Osinbajo’s wife is late sage, Obafemi Awolowo’s grand daughter, Dalapo, with whom he has three children.
The second citizen in a series of tweets to explain the prevalence of prejudice, disclosed that ahead of his wedding he set out on a house searching mission, and encountered his then landlord, who had a decided prejudice against Igbos, Ijebus and lawyers.
The tweets: “In 1989, I was about to get married and I was searching for a good house to rent. I met my landlord who happened to be an elderly lawyer who obviously did more real estate than legal practice.
“He let me know that there were three categories of people he would not rent property in his care to – Igbos, Ijebus and lawyers. I was disqualified on two accounts. He then said to me, pointing behind him at a few shrivelled-up books on a small bookshelf, that he had the arsenal to destroy any tenant in court if I gave him any trouble. He later, to his embarrassment, discovered that I was a Law teacher and adviser to the then Attorney General of the Federation and of course, that I am also Ijebu.
“I have shared this story to illustrate a point that I think is hugely important which is that prejudice and bias are natural aspects of human nature. Everyone has prejudices and preferences that are reinforced by stories and narratives.
“Prejudice is a function of the environment in which one is socialised and the level of exposure that one has. These stereotypes are of course, by the very nature of stereotypes, wild generalisations that are unlikely to hold up if empirical tests are conducted.”
