- Insists Nigeria needs them more
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has urged President Bola Tinubu to reconsider the heavy deployment of police and military personnel attached to his son Seyi, saying such resources are urgently needed in more insecure parts of the country.
Soyinka made the appeal while speaking in honour of veteran poet, Odia Ofeimun, who received a special recognition award at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism held at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos.
Recounting an encounter at a hotel in Ikoyi, Soyinka said he was taken aback when he saw a young man surrounded by a sizeable number of security officers. At first glance, he assumed a film production was taking place, owing to the sheer presence of uniformed security personnel.
According to him, the young man later approached to greet him, and Soyinka asked what movie was being shot, only to be told there was none. Curious, he returned to his car and asked his driver for clarity. It was at this point he learned the person was Seyi Tinubu, son of the President.
Soyinka explained that he was concerned enough to call the National Security Adviser (NSA) to describe exactly what he had witnessed.
He wondered why such a large deployment of personnel would be assigned to one individual, especially when the nation is grappling with pockets of insecurity.
“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 I don’t understand 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. Later on, I did some investigative journalism, and I found that apparently this is how this young man goes around with his battalion, his heavy armed soldiers.”
“I was astonished,” Soyinka said, adding that “children must understand their place. They are not elected leaders, and they must not inherit the architecture of State power simply by proximity,” he said.
Speaking humorously, he remarked that if the country faced an outbreak of insurgency, perhaps the President should ask Seyi to “go and handle it,” given the number of officers around him.
However, Soyinka added that beyond the humour lies a serious matter of priority and fairness.
He noted that assigning a battalion of security operatives to a single individual does not reflect well on a nation battling kidnappings, rural attacks, insurgency and criminal violence.
He urged Tinubu to review the level of security protection provided to individuals, insisting that the presence of military personnel should be concentrated in volatile regions where citizens genuinely need support and reassurance.
According to him, national security deployments must reflect the realities facing the larger population, rather than being concentrated around the privileged few.
