By Adewale Adewale
Soyinka who also criticized recent involvement of Nigeria in Benin Republic cautioned Tinubu about his approach to regional security, domestic governance, and the use of state protection for privileged individuals.
The nobel laureate said this at the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Awards in Lagos on Monday.
All these were captured in a now viral four-minute, 25-second video shared on several social media platforms.
Soyinka had recounted an encounter which he described as recent in Ikoyi, Lagos State, that left him shocked at what he considered an extravagant display of state security.
He described seeing “an excessively large security battalion assigned to a young individual close to the Presidency,” an entourage he said was “sufficient to take over a small country.”
“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?’ I looked around, and there was nearly a whole battalion occupying the grounds 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.”
He said the discovery concerned 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.”
In a separate remark captured at the same event in honour of veteran poet Odia Ofeimum and many others, Soyinka urged Tinubu to reconsider the scale of security personnel attached to Seyi, stressing that such resources are urgently needed elsewhere.
He humorously observed that if a major insurgency were to break out, perhaps the President should ask Seyi to “go and handle it,” given the size of his escort, but added that “beyond the humour lies a serious matter of priority and fairness.”
He warned that concentrating a battalion of operatives around one individual is inconsistent with a nation battling kidnappings, rural attacks, insurgency and criminal violence, insisting that security deployments must reflect national realities, not privilege.
Turning to the media, Soyinka praised journalists for resilience but urged stronger editorial discipline in an era of escalating misinformation.
He cautioned that “the next great conflict may well be triggered by the misuse of social platforms,” calling for renewed commitment to truth and verification, and describing credible journalism as one of Nigeria’s strongest defences against chaos.
Also in the viral footage, Soyinka warned that Nigeria’s involvement in the recently halted coup attempt in the Republic of Benin carries significant risks.
Soyinka described the intervention as “another unnecessary military entanglement next door,” arguing that Nigeria should focus on reinforcing democratic institutions rather than resorting to reflex military deployment.
He cautioned that instability in neighbouring countries inevitably spills into Nigeria.
He noted, “What happens in Benin inevitably affects us. Instability anywhere in the region echoes across our own sense of security.”
Beyond regional matters, Soyinka turned to domestic issues, criticising the ongoing wave of demolitions across Lagos.
He said he had personally received photos and testimonies of displaced families and stressed that even necessary urban reforms must prioritise dignity.
“Let us not strip away the humanity of the people affected,” he said, calling for evacuation procedures that protect the vulnerable.
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