Soyinka: Security Around Tinubu’s Son Could Quell Benin Republic Uprising

Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has criticised what he called an excessive concentration of security operatives around President Bola Tinubu’s family, warning that such practices distort Nigeria’s security priorities.

Speaking at the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) Awards in Lagos on Tuesday, Soyinka described a recent encounter with what he said appeared to be a “battalion-level” security detail assigned to the president’s son at a hotel in Ikoyi.

The playwright said he initially mistook the scene for a film production due to the number of heavily armed personnel positioned throughout the premises.

“I was coming out of my hotel, and I saw what looked like a film set,” he recounted. “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.”

Soyinka said about 15 heavily armed officers formed the protective ring around the president’s son—an arrangement he found deeply troubling.

“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.

Disturbed by the scale of the deployment, Soyinka said he attempted to reach the National Security Adviser (NSA) to confirm whether the security arrangement was authorised.

“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.”

With heavy sarcasm, Soyinka suggested that if such a powerful security unit escorts the president’s son, the federal government need not deploy the armed forces to quell regional unrest.

“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 naturally have families, such privileges must not be abused or allowed to reshape a nation’s security architecture.

“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 comments contribute to ongoing national debate over the scale of state-provided protection for politically connected individuals, especially during a period of heightened insecurity across Nigeria.

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