Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has criticised what he described as the excessive deployment of security operatives around the family of President Bola Tinubu, warning that such overreach undermines Nigeria’s security priorities.
Speaking at the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) Awards in Lagos on Tuesday, the literary icon recounted his recent encounter with what he termed a “battalion-level” security detail attached to the president’s son at a hotel in Ikoyi.
Soyinka said he had initially assumed a film was being shot on the hotel premises due to the sheer number of heavily armed personnel he saw.
“I was coming out of my hotel, and I saw what looked like a film set,” he said. “A young man detached himself from the actors, came over and greeted me politely. When I asked if they were shooting a film, he said no. I looked around and there was nearly a whole battalion occupying the hotel grounds.”
According to him, about 15 heavily armed officers formed the president’s son’s security cordon—an arrangement he found alarming.
“When I got back in my car and asked the driver who the young man was, he told me. And I saw this SWAT team, heavily armed to the teeth. They looked sufficient to take over a neighbouring small country or city like Benin,” he said.
The playwright added that he was so disturbed that he attempted reaching the National Security Adviser (NSA) to verify whether the deployment was official.
“I began looking for the NSA immediately. I said, track him down for me. They got him somewhere in Paris, but he was in a meeting with the president. I described the scene and asked: ‘Do you mean a child of the head of state goes around with an army for his protection?’ I couldn’t believe it.”
Soyinka, in a tone laced with sarcasm, suggested that the federal government need not deploy the military or air force to quell threats in neighbouring countries when such a formidable force already escorts the president’s son.
“Tinubu didn’t have to send the air force or military to deal with any insurrection. There is an easier way,” he said.
“Next time there’s an uprising, the president should call that young man and say, ‘Seyi, go and put down those stupid people there. You have troops under your command.’”
He stressed that while heads of state often have families, such privilege must never be abused or allowed to distort national security structures.
“Children should know their place. They are not potentates; they are not heads of state,” he said. “The security architecture of a nation suffers when we see such heavy devotion of security to one young individual.”
Soyinka’s remarks added to ongoing public debate about the scale and visibility of state-provided security for politically connected individuals, particularly in a period of heightened security challenges across the country.
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