Renowned writer and Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka has criticised the substantial security convoy assigned to Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu, calling for an urgent reassessment of how state security resources are allocated.
He delivered the remarks in Lagos during a ceremony in which veteran poet Odia Ofeimun was honoured by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism at the MUSON Centre.
According to Soyinka, he was taken aback upon encountering a young man surrounded by a large formation of heavily armed officers—an arrangement he described as more fitting for a movie set than an everyday outing. The young man later greeted him, revealing himself to be the president’s son.
Soyinka said the spectacle prompted him to seek clarification from the National Security Adviser, questioning the rationale for dedicating such a sizeable security team to a single individual, particularly in a country grappling with widespread insecurity.
He said he subsequently learnt that the deployment was not an isolated occurrence but a standard escort for Seyi Tinubu, a revelation he described as “astonishing”.
“Children must recognise their role in the public sphere,” Soyinka argued. “They are not elected officials and should not automatically assume the privileges of state authority simply because of their proximity to power.”
He jokingly suggested that if unrest were to break out in the country, the president could dispatch his son to handle the situation given the strength of the security contingent accompanying him.
Soyinka maintained that the use of taxpayer-funded personnel to protect an individual who does not hold public office sends the wrong signal at a time when many communities are struggling with violence and instability. He urged President Tinubu to redirect security resources to areas where citizens are most in need of protection and reassurance.
