Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has criticised what he described as an excessive and troubling security convoy accompanying Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu, calling it an unjustifiable use of state resources.
In a viral video, Soyinka recounted his shock after encountering what he said looked like a “small battalion” of heavily armed operatives escorting Seyi during a visit to a hotel in the Ikoyi area of Lagos. The deployment was so overwhelming, he said, that he initially assumed a movie scene was being filmed—until Seyi stepped forward to greet him politely.
Soyinka said he later discovered that the entire security formation was attached solely to the president’s son, a revelation he described as deeply alarming.
“I couldn’t believe it. Later on, I did some investigative journalism and found that apparently this is how this young man moves around—with his battalion of heavily armed soldiers,” he said, adding that the sight disturbed him enough to attempt reaching out to the National Security Adviser for clarification.
The Nobel Laureate warned that assigning such a heavy security detail to one individual, especially a president’s child, sends the wrong message and distorts national security priorities.
“Children should know their place. They are not heads of state,” Soyinka said, noting that national security architecture should not be bent for personal convenience.
He added jokingly that with the size of Seyi’s escort, the president might as well deploy him to quell any future unrest.