Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has criticised what he described as the excessive deployment of armed security personnel around the family of Bola Tinubu, saying the display reflects poorly on Nigeria’s security priorities and architecture.
Speaking on Tuesday at the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) Awards held in Lagos, Soyinka recounted a recent incident in which he observed heavy‑duty protection for Tinubu’s son at a hotel in Ikoyi.
He said, “I was coming out of my hotel, and I saw what looked like a film set, and I said, oh, they are shooting a film on the ground of the hotel.
“And a young man detached himself from the actors, came over and greeted me very politely. A very nice young man. And I said, are you shooting somebody?
“I said, I’m just joking. Are you shooting a film? No. I looked around, and there was nearly a whole battalion occupying the grounds of the hotel in Ikoyi.
“So, when I got back in my car, and I asked the driver, who that young man was, and he told me, and I saw this SWAT team, a mixture, they were heavily armed at least some 15 or so heavily armed to the teeth security personnel looked sufficient to take over a small country neighbouring city like Benin.”
According to Soyinka, he was surprised that he considered reaching out to the national security adviser (NSA) to confirm whether the deployment was official and justifiable.
He said, “I was so astonished that I started looking for the national security adviser. I said track him down for me. I think they got him somewhere in Paris. But he was with the president; he was in a meeting.
“Then, I said I’ve just seen something I can’t believe I don’t understand and I described the scene to him I said do you mean that a child of the head of state goes around with an army for his protection or whatever.
“I couldn’t believe it. Later on, I did some investigative journalism, and I found that apparently this is how this young man goes around with his battalion, his heavily armed soldiers.”
He joked that the President should have mobilised the security details around his son to confront threats in countries like the Benin Republic.
Soyinka said, “Tinubu didn’t have to send the air force and the military to deal with this particular insurrection, this threat to our own sense of security and equilibrium. No. There is an easier way to do it.
Let me tell you where Tinubu should look for forces to quell that insurrection. Right here, in Lagos, or in Abuja, perhaps.
“And I think next time there’s an insurrection, I think the president should just call that young man and say, ‘Seyi, go and put down those stupid people there. You have troops under your command’”.
Soyinka stressed that while presidents around the world have families, the privilege must not be abused.
He added, “This is not the first country whose head of state has family.
“Children should know their place. They are not potentates; they are not heads of state.
“The security architecture of a nation suffers when we see such heavy devotion of security to one young individual.”