Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has called on President Bola Tinubu to exercise caution in handling regional security, domestic governance, and the allocation of state protection to select individuals.
Soyinka made the remarks in a now-viral four-minute, 25-second video shared on Tuesday night during the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Awards in Lagos.
He recounted a recent encounter in Ikoyi, Lagos State, which he said left him shocked at what he considered an extravagant deployment of state security.
Soyinka said he witnessed “an excessively large security battalion assigned to a young individual close to the Presidency,” describing the entourage as “sufficient to take over a small country.”
He later discovered that the young man was Seyi Tinubu, President Tinubu’s son. Concerned by what he saw, Soyinka contacted National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu.
“I was astonished,” he 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.”
At the same event, which also honoured veteran poet Odia Ofeimum, Soyinka urged the President to reconsider the scale of security personnel assigned to Seyi, noting that such resources could be better utilized elsewhere.
He humorously suggested that if a major insurgency were to break out, perhaps the President should ask Seyi to “go and handle it,” given the size of his escort, but added that “beyond the humour lies a serious matter of priority and fairness.”
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Soyinka warned that concentrating a battalion of operatives around one individual conflicts with the nation’s ongoing struggle against kidnappings, rural attacks, insurgency, and criminal violence. He stressed that security deployments must reflect national needs, not privilege.
Turning to the media, Soyinka praised journalists for their resilience while calling for stronger editorial discipline in the face of rising misinformation.
“The next great conflict may well be triggered by the misuse of social platforms,” he cautioned, urging renewed commitment to truth and verification, and describing credible journalism as one of Nigeria’s strongest defences against chaos.
The video had amassed over 27,000 views, 466 reposts, and 81 quotes on X by Tuesday night.
