Professor Wole Soyinka says President Bola Tinubu must be cautious 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 Tuesday night by #Nigeriastories on X.
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.”
Soyinka revealed that the young man turned out to be Seyi Tinubu, the President’s son.
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.”