Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has criticised the scale of security attached to President Bola Tinubu’s son, Seyi, saying the personnel he moves around with are enough to handle any national disturbance.
He made the pronouncement on Tuesday during an award ceremony held at one of the centres named after him, where he reflected on the recent deployment of top security agencies to quell unrest.
Soyinka argued that the President did not need to engage the Air Force or military for the incident in question. According to him:
“Tinubu didn’t have to send the Air Force and the Military to deal with this particular insurrection, mistrait to our insecurity and equilibrium.
“No! There are easier ways of doing things, let me tell you where Tinubu should look for forces to quell that insurrection, right here in Lagos or in Abuja perhaps, I don’t know but there’s no need to call the military or the air force.”
He went on to recount an encounter he had during a recent visit to Lagos, using it to illustrate his point.
“I will tell you what happened in one of my home visits about two months ago. I was coming out of a hotel and I saw what looked like a film set and I said oh! They are shooting a film in this hotel and the young man detached himself from the actors, came over to greet me very politely, very nice young man and I said are you shooting somebody. I said I’m just joking, are you shooting a film and he said ‘No’ and I looked around, there was nearly a whole battalion occupying the ground to that hotel in Ikoyi, right here.”
Soyinka said he later learned who the young man was.
“So I got back in my car and I asked the driver who that young man was and he told me and I saw the SWAT team, the mixture, they were at least heavily armed, at least 15 or so, heavily armed to be chief security personnel, uhn! looked sufficient to take over the small neighbouring country, neighboring city like Benin Republic. And I think like the next time, the president should just call and say ‘Seyi go and quell the rebellion over there’. I was so astonished I started looking for the national security adviser.”
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He explained that he contacted the National Security Adviser to verify what he had seen.
“I said track him down for me. I think they got him somewhere in Paris but he was with the president, he was at a meeting and I said, I have just seen something I can’t believe it, I don’t understand and I described the scene to him. I said do you mean that the child of the head of state goes around with an Army for his protection or whatever. I couldn’t believe it.”
Soyinka added that further checks confirmed his observations.
“Later on, I did some investigative journalism and I found out, apparently, this is how this young man goes around with this battalion, this …. Soldiers. Of course, the road was cleared before his car went out. I stayed until he was leaving.”
He said such a large security detail made his earlier suggestion even more practical.
“So, next time there’s an insurrection, I think the president should just call that young man and say ‘go and pull down those stupid people there, you have enough troops under your command.’ So, don’t bother me with all this issue of insecurity any longer.”
Soyinka warned that assigning excessive security to individuals sends the wrong signal.
“Let’s not overdo things. This is not the first country that has a head of state. This is not the first country whose head of state has family and I think children should know their place.
“They are not potentates, they are not exo-state and the security architecture of a nation like this suffers some early injury and alienation when we see such a heavy devotion of security to one young individual.”