The Nobel laureate warns President Tinubu that concentrating elite protection on his son is out of step with Nigeria’s security realities, regional risks, and domestic governance priorities.
What Happened at the WSCIJ Awards
At the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Awards in Lagos on Tuesday, Professor Wole Soyinka pulled no punches in addressing what he sees as a dangerous trend in Nigeria’s seat of power: the excessive security detail surrounding President Bola Tinubu’s son, Seyi.
Soyinka recounted a recent encounter in his Ikoyi hotel room that left him astonished. Outside his window, an “excessively large security battalion” surrounded a young man — an entourage, in his words, “sufficient to take over a small country.” That young man, Soyinka discovered, was none other than Seyi Tinubu.
“I was so astonished that I started looking for the national security adviser,” Soyinka said. “I said, do you mean that a child of the Head of State goes around with an army for his protection?”
The writer later conducted his own inquiry and concluded that, indeed, this is how Seyi reportedly moves — with a battalion of heavily armed operatives.
Why Soyinka Warned Tinubu
While he delivered his remarks with flashes of humour — joking that perhaps Seyi could be deployed to tackle insurgents given the size of his escort — Soyinka stressed the gravity of the issue.
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“This is not about comedy,” he said. “Children must understand their place. They are not elected leaders, and they must not inherit the architecture of state power simply by proximity.”
The Nobel laureate added that concentrating elite resources around one individual is inconsistent with Nigeria’s ongoing fight against kidnappings, banditry, and rural violence. Security deployments, he insists, must reflect national realities, not privilege.
