‘Send Your Son, Not the Military to Stop Benin Coup’, Soyinka Berates Tinubu Over Seyi’s Heavy Security

• Wole Soyinka has urged President Tinubu to rethink the heavy security assigned to his son, Seyi, warning that state protection must not be used as a privilege.

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has cautioned President Bola Tinubu to be careful with his approach to regional security, domestic governance, and the use of state protection for privileged individuals.

Soyinka made the remarks during the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Awards in Lagos on Monday. His comments were captured in a viral four-minute, 25-second video released on Tuesday night by #Nigeriastories on X.

The playwright recounted a recent experience in Ikoyi, Lagos, that left him shocked at what he described as an extravagant security display.

He said he witnessed “an excessively large security battalion assigned to a young individual close to the Presidency,” an entourage he joked was “sufficient to take over a small country.”

The individual, he later discovered, was Seyi Tinubu, the President’s son.

Soyinka said the incident disturbed him enough to contact National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu.

“I was astonished,” he said, adding that “children must understand their place. They are not elected leaders, and they must not inherit the architecture of state power simply by proximity.”

He urged the President to reduce the size of security attached to Seyi, noting that those operatives are needed elsewhere.

He quipped that if a major insurgency broke out, perhaps Tinubu should ask his son to “go and handle it,” given the size of the escort — but added that “beyond the humour lies a serious matter of priority and fairness.”

Soyinka argued that deploying a battalion around one individual is incompatible with a country struggling with kidnappings, rural attacks, insurgency and violent crime. Security, he said, must reflect national needs, not privilege.

Benin coup, Lagos demolitions

In the same video, Soyinka warned that Nigeria’s role in the recently halted coup attempt in Benin Republic poses risks.

He described the intervention as “another unnecessary military entanglement next door,” and urged the government to focus on strengthening democratic institutions rather than rushing into military deployments.

DON’T MISS: Igbo Leaders Condemn Nnamdi Kanu’s life Sentence Call for Urgent U.S. Intervention

“What happens in Benin inevitably affects us. Instability anywhere in the region echoes across our own sense of security,” he said.

Soyinka also condemned the ongoing demolitions across Lagos, saying he had seen photos and testimonies from displaced families and insisted that even necessary urban reforms must protect human dignity.

“Let us not strip away the humanity of the people affected,” he said, calling for evacuation procedures that shield vulnerable residents.

Soyinka further urged journalists to maintain editorial discipline, warning that “the next great conflict may well be triggered by the misuse of social platforms.”