Professor Wole Soyinka has criticised Seyi Tinubu for going around the country with a retinue of security details which include policemen and soldiers. The Nobel Laureate while expressing outrage over the issue, said President Bola Tinubu should not have allowed this to happen because Seyi is not a government official.
According to him, the number of the President’s son’s security personnel was so large that it would have been enough “to foil Sunday’s coup” in Benin Republic.
Soyinka, who spoke in Lagos while presenting an honourary award to famous poet and activist, Odia Ofeimun, who was honoured by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, noted that the President should not ‘overdo” things because his family is not the first to produce the Head of State in the country.
He stressed that the country is facing serious security problems, and that the huge number of policemen and soldiers gaurding Seyi Tinubu should have been deployed to protect Nigerians.
Soyinka: “Tinubu did not have to look for Airforce and the military to deal with this particular insurrection. No. There are easier ways to do it. Let me tell you where Tinubu should have looked for forces to quell that insurrection. Right here in Lagos or in Abuja.
“There was no need to call the Airforce or the military. I do not know. I tell you what happened in one my visits about two months ago. I was coming out of my hotel and saw what looked like a film set and said, oh, they are shooting a film, and the young man detached himself from the actors and came over and greeted me politely and I said are you shooting a film?”
“He said no. I looked around it was also a whole battalion occupying that ground of that hotel in Ikoyi. When I got back to the car and asked the driver who that young man was the driver told me it was President Tinubu’s son, Seyi.”
Since he made the remark on Tuesday , not a few Nigerians insist that the Professor has now shattered his promise not to criticise the administration of Bola Tinubu who many consider his ally.
On why he failed to criticise the Tinubu administration, he said: “I have been asked that question by several people.
“I don’t want to answer because it seems as if there’s nothing one says that won’t be twisted, and I’m tired of that.
“So, I want to take my time. When it’s time, I will write my view on that.
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