Soyinka Blasts Tinubu Over Seyi’s ‘Excessive’ Security—Should’ve Gone to Benin Instead

By: Abudu Olalekan

Soyinka criticizes Seyi Tinubu security escort

Professor Wole Soyinka said something sharp on Tuesday. Really sharp. He basically told President Tinubu he got his priorities backwards. Forget sending troops to Benin. Send Seyi’s security team instead.

The Nobel laureate was speaking at an award ceremony held at one of his namesake centers when he decided to call out what he’d witnessed. And what he witnessed was ridiculous, according to him.

Here’s what happened. About two months ago, Soyinka was leaving a hotel in Lagos. He saw what he thought was a film set. All these people. All this commotion. Cameras, he figured. Action scenes. Hollywood stuff happening in Ikoyi.

Then a young man walked over and greeted him politely. Very polite. Very respectful. Soyinka, being Soyinka, joked and asked if they were shooting a movie.

The answer was no. And that’s when Soyinka looked around and realized something was very, very wrong.

“There was nearly a whole battalion occupying the ground,” he said. Fifteen or so heavily armed personnel. SWAT teams. Mixture of security forces. All protecting one young man.

Soyinka asked his driver who it was. Learned it was the President’s son. That’s when things clicked for him.

He was so stunned he actually tried to track down the National Security Adviser. Found the guy in Paris or somewhere, pulled him away from meetings with the president. Soyinka basically said: “I just saw something I can’t believe. Does the head of state’s child really travel around with an entire army?”

The answer, apparently, was yes.

“Later on, I did some investigative journalism,” Soyinka explained with a wry tone. Turns out Seyi Tinubu moves around with that exact number of personnel. Every single time. The roads get cleared before his car leaves. It’s military-grade protection for a civilian.

That’s when Soyinka made his point.

If this young man’s got enough troops under his command to take over a neighboring city—and Benin Republic’s basically a neighboring city—why not just send him to handle the coup attempt? Why bother the Air Force? Why mobilize the entire military?

“Next time there’s an insurrection, the president should just call that young man and say ‘go and pull down those stupid people there, you have enough troops under your command,'” Soyinka said with barely concealed sarcasm.

But then he got serious. Real serious.

This wasn’t just funny. It was dangerous. Assigning that level of security to one individual sends the wrong message to the nation. It distorts the security architecture of a country. It creates early damage to the system.

“Children should know their place,” he said bluntly. “They are not potentates. They are not exo-state.”

Soyinka made a broader point. Nigeria’s not the first country with a head of state. Other nations have leaders with families too. But those families don’t travel around like conquering armies. There’s restraint. There’s perspective. There’s understanding that some things, even if you can do them, shouldn’t be done.

The message was clear: Overkill on security for one person weakens the entire country’s security apparatus. Resources get diverted. Priorities get scrambled. A nation starts looking like it’s run by dynasties instead of democracies.

Was Soyinka being harsh? Maybe. But he was also being honest. And that’s something Nigeria doesn’t hear enough from its elder statesmen these days.