By Charles Igbo
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has expressed shock at the number of soldiers attached to Seyi Tinubu, President Bola Tinubu’s son, as guards.
Soyinka, who spoke in Lagos at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Awards Ceremony, said he was so taken aback that he called the National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, to express concern.
He described as excessive, the number of soldiers deployed to guard the President’s son, and noted that such display reflects poorly on Nigeria’s security priorities and architecture.
“This is not the first country whose Head Of State Has Family”, the Professor lashed out.
Narrating his experience with Seyi Tinubu and his security guards at a hotel in Ikoyi Lagos, the Nobel Laureate said: “I was coming out of my hotel, and I saw what looked like a film set, and I said, oh, they are shooting a film on the ground of the hotel.
“And a young man detached himself from the actors, came over and greeted me very politely. A very nice young man. And I said, are you shooting somebody?
“I said, I’m just joking. Are you shooting a film? No. I looked around, and there was nearly a whole battalion occupying the grounds of the hotel in Ikoyi.
“So, when I got back in my car, and I asked the driver, who that young man was, and he told me, and I saw this SWAT team, a mixture, they were heavily armed at least some 15 or so heavily armed to the teeth security personnel looked sufficient to take over a small country neighbouring city like Benin.
“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 heavily armed soldiers.”
On a lighter note, Soyinka said the President should have mobilised the security details around his son to confront threats in countries like the Benin Republic where the President deployed the Nigerian Military to intervene and quash a Coup d’etat aimed at overthrowing the Government of that country.
Soyinka: “Tinubu didn’t have to send the air force and the military to deal with this particular insurrection, this threat to our own sense of security and equilibrium. No. There is an easier way to do it.
“Let me tell you where Tinubu should look for forces to quell that insurrection. Right here, in Lagos, or in Abuja, perhaps.
“And I think next time there’s an insurrection, I think the President should just call that young man and say: ‘Seyi, go and put down those stupid people there. You have troops under your command’”.
Soyinka emphasized that while Presidents around the world have families, the privileges attached to it must not be abused. He then chided President Tinubu.
Soyinka: “This is not the first country whose Head of State has family.
“Children should know their place. They are not potentates; they are not Heads of State.
“The security architecture of a nation suffers when we see such heavy devotion of security to one young individual.”
The Presidency has not responded to Soyinka’s strong comments and advice.
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