adonbilivit:
nothing is wrong with it. I can decide to wake up in the morning and not say good morning to my dad and instead say "Dad, how are you this morning?". must we be stereotypical?

Origin:
Its the nature of the sentence. Sounds condescending and usually used by older person when referring to a younger person.

Would you say "bawoni" to an elder person. That's the rough translation.

There is a way that some people say "my dear" that is belittling as if the person been addressed is of a lower status.

Zico5:

Them don come again Igbo. No sense of regards at all.

xynerise:
"How are you?" may sound polite to some group of people or culture but not to the African culture especially Nigeria.

Do you dare tell an elderly man or woman "How are you?" without getting this evil look and opened case in the community?

I was having this discussion with a friend and we started taking about the above topic then he told me;

Just imagine you saw a kid and call his name and the next comment he made was " Hey brother, how are you?"

Well, e sound somehow sha....

Does it actually shows disrespect or we Nigerians are just too respect conscious?

presskid:
The child who throws out his hand to shake an elderly man will receive a slap

Rilwayne001:
How are you "Sir" or "Ma" will do.

xynerise:
"How are you?" may sound polite to some group of people or culture but not to the African culture especially Nigeria.

Do you dare tell an elderly man or woman "How are you?" without getting this evil look and opened case in the community?

I was having this discussion with a friend and we started taking about the above topic then he told me;

Just imagine you saw a kid and call his name and the next comment he made was " Hey brother, how are you?"

Well, e sound somehow sha....

Does it actually shows disrespect or we Nigerians are just too respect conscious?

xynerise:


But this is just an African thing....I stand to be corrected

tomieyRozay:
First Day my comment would be on the front page..
I dedicate this space to my future girlfriends....I love you all.

steppin:
African culture believes its disrespectful. We shouldn't always copy oyibo people all the time.

isarumah:
sometime in 2001, we were listening to live radio broadcast, where ex-president Obasanjo was responding to the audience via telephone. A man called, inroduced him self as Pastor so so so, the anchor told him "go ahead pastor, the president is listening to you". Pastor went ahead and said "how are you, sir". Obasanjo responded this way "come, can you tell your god how are you?" The anchor took over and advice callers to be respectful.

krauss:
Just stereotype. I have 'toddlers' and 'children' around who even call me by my name while talking to me. Once one is able to grow over these stereotypes, he or she will find it easy to let go certain things. We have been imbued with some of these things, and I always seek to independently rationalize which is best for me and presumably, the society. Some times, acting like a maverick makes a lot of sense. My uncle who stays in the UK once picked offence with this same thing when the would-be daughter-in law conversing with him on phone asked him, how are you? ifugo nu ka osi di. BTW, another one is, must you close your eyes while praying?

boborosky:
As far as I know, there is absolutely nothing wrong with saying that. However, somethings must be added. One of the things is, your attitude. You must be very polite and let the essence of saying that be truly clear. Secondly, I add, Ma or Sir. I do so in a respectable manner that clearly shows that I care about you and therefore want to know how you are doing. e.g Good Morning Ma, (response - good morning), How are you (doing) Ma? (fine my son).
Another example is come on (C'mon). This phrase has been bastardized far too much.

ziga:
It is not by force to speak English.

The people that created the language are not offended by the phrase "how are you"

If it offends non-English speaking people, avoid communicating in that "disrespectful language"

And let us stick to our highly respectful Epele saaah.

On a side note, it is funny how Nigerians talk about respect, especially because President Buhari is around 70 and people who are not even half his age are so disrespectful when they talk about him. Or even our past Presidents.

Hypocrisy in our culture