Olayiwola Matthew
Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has criticised what he described as the excessive deployment of security personnel around the family of President Bola Tinubu, saying it reflects poorly on Nigeria’s priorities and security architecture.
Speaking at the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) Awards held in Lagos on Tuesday, Soyinka said he recently witnessed a disturbing level of armed protection attached to the president’s son while at a hotel in the Ikoyi area of Lagos.
“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,” he recalled.
“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, there was nearly a whole battalion occupying the ground 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.”
Soyinka said he was alarmed enough to try reaching the National Security Adviser (NSA) to confirm whether the deployment was official and justifiable.
“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,” he said.
“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 heavy armed soldiers.”
He said President Tinubu did not need to mobilise the military or air force to confront threats in countries like Benin Republic, joking that the security detail around his son could easily crush a rebellion.
“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 easier way to doing it,” Soyinka said.
“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 stressed that while presidents around the world have families, the privilege must not be abused.
“This is not the first country whose head of state has family,” he said.
“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.”