Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has raised concerns over what he described as excessive security deployment around the family of President Bola Tinubu, saying it reflects poorly on Nigeria’s priorities and national security architecture.

Speaking at the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) Awards in Lagos on Tuesday, Soyinka recounted witnessing a large number of armed personnel attached to the president’s son, Seyi Tinubu, at a hotel in Ikoyi.

“I looked around, and there was nearly a whole battalion occupying the grounds of the hotel in Ikoyi… at least some 15 heavily armed security personnel, sufficient to take over a small neighbouring country like Benin,” he said.

Soyinka said he was so alarmed by the scene that he attempted to reach the National Security Adviser to confirm whether the deployment was official. He later discovered that such heavy security presence reportedly accompanies the president’s son regularly.

The Nobel laureate joked that President Tinubu did not need to mobilise the military or air force to confront threats in countries like Benin Republic, suggesting instead that the security detail around his son could easily quell an insurrection.

“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 quipped.

He stressed that while heads of state worldwide have families, such privileges must not be abused.

“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,” he added.