December 10, (THEWILL) — Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has raised concerns over the heavy security detail assigned to Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu, warning that such deployments could further strain Nigeria’s already overstretched national security resources.
Soyinka made the remarks on Tuesday, December 9, while presenting an honorary award to renowned poet Odia Ofeimun at an event organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism in Lagos.
The playwright recounted an encounter at a Lagos hotel where he initially mistook a large gathering of armed men for a film shoot. He later realised that the group was Seyi Tinubu’s security detail.
“It was only after I left that my driver told me it was Seyi Tinubu,” Soyinka said.
He noted that the president’s son was accompanied by “about 15 or so people, armed to the teeth.”
Disturbed by the sight, Soyinka said he immediately contacted the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to register his concern.
“I was so astonished that I started looking for the National Security Adviser. I told him I had just seen something I could not believe and described the scene. Do you mean that a child of the head of state goes around with an army for his protection?” he asked.
Further inquiries suggested that such heavy security cover had become routine for the president’s son, a development Soyinka described as troubling given Nigeria’s worsening security challenges.
“Later on, I did some investigative journalism and found that apparently, this is how this young man goes around with his battalion, heavily armed soldiers,” he said.
Warning against the diversion of scarce security resources, Soyinka stressed that assigning large numbers of armed personnel to individuals with no public office weakens the nation’s capacity to respond to pressing security threats.
“Children should know their place. They are not potentates,” he said.
He argued that Nigeria’s security system risks being undermined if such practices continue.
In a sarcastic remark, Soyinka added that if another coup or insurrection were to occur, the president might simply “send his son and the troops that follow him around” to quell it.
His comments come weeks after President Tinubu ordered the withdrawal of police officers attached to very important persons (VIPs), directing that they be redeployed to frontline policing duties.
In November, the President described the move as part of efforts to strengthen internal security and tackle the rising wave of insecurity across the country.
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