Wole Soyinka criticizes Seyi Tinubu’s heavy security details

Professor Wole Soyinka has expressed deep concern over the lavish security detail assigned to Seyi Tinubu, the son of President Bola Tinubu, urging a review of how state protection is deployed in Nigeria

Speaking at the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Awards in Lagos on Tuesday, the Nobel laureate recounted a recent encounter at his hotel in Ikoyi, Lagos, that left him astonished. He described seeing “an excessively large security battalion assigned to a young individual close to the Presidency,” an entourage he said was “sufficient to take over a small country.”

Soyinka revealed the young man was Seyi Tinubu. Concerned by the sight, he contacted National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu.

“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 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,” Soyinka said.

After further investigation, he discovered that Seyi Tinubu regularly moves with a battalion of heavily armed soldiers. “Children must understand their place. They are not elected leaders, and they must not inherit the architecture of state power simply by proximity,” Soyinka emphasized.

At the same event, which also honoured veteran poet Odia Ofeimum and others, Soyinka urged President Tinubu to reconsider the scale of security personnel attached to Seyi, stressing that such resources are urgently needed elsewhere.

Humorously, he observed: “If a major insurgency were to break out, perhaps the President should ask Seyi to go and handle it,” given the size of his escort, but he added, “beyond the humour lies a serious matter of priority and fairness.”

He warned that concentrating a battalion of operatives around one individual is inconsistent with the security needs of a nation facing kidnappings, rural attacks, insurgency, and criminal violence. “Security deployments must reflect national realities, not privilege,” Soyinka said.

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