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 Tuesday.

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 his hotel room 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.

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Soyinka on Tinubu’s son
He said the discovery concerned him enough to contact National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu.

“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.

“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.

“I was astonished,” Soyinka 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.

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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.

The video shared at about 22.18pm on Tuesday night had garnered over 27,000 views, 466 reposts and 81 quotes.

Benin coup, Lagos demolitions
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.

READ ALSO:Soyinka Criticizes Tinubu’s Emergency Rule In Rivers, Calls For Constitutional Reform

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.

READ ALSO:Why I Considered Myself Failed Mechanic — Wole Soyinka

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

The trending video continues to circulate widely on X, drawing public comment and discussion on governance, accountability in the country.

Late November, Tinubu ordered the withdrawal of police officers attached to Very Important Persons across the country, directing that they be redeployed to core policing duties.

While, there are no official communication or light response yet from the Presidency as of Tuesday night, The PUNCH reports that no video confirmation or acceptance that the individual Soyinka raised the alarm about is indeed Seyi Tinubu.

Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has said the Nigerian military cannot defeat bandit groups through force, arguing that dialogue remains the only path to resolving insecurity in the northwest and other regions.

In an interview with the BBC, Gumi stated that modern armies worldwide struggle against guerrilla fighters, and Nigeria is no exception.

“But even the military says that in dealing with this civil unrest and criminality, only 25% is kinetic action; the rest depends on the government, politics, and local communities. The military cannot do everything,” he said. “Where have you ever seen the military defeat guerrilla fighters? Nowhere.”

His comments come as President Bola Tinubu’s administration introduces sweeping security reforms, including changes in military leadership and a nationwide security emergency aimed at tackling violent groups responsible for kidnappings, extortion and rural attacks.

READ ALSO:Gumi Reacts As Saudi Bars Him From Hajj

Addressing accusations of maintaining ties with bandit leaders, Gumi said he has had no contact with them since 2021, when the federal government formally designated the groups as terrorists. “I never went there alone,” he said.

“It was in 2021 when I was trying to see how we could bring them together. But unfortunately, the government at the time, the federal government, was not interested. They declared them terrorists, and since that time we have completely disengaged from all contact with them.”

Despite criticism that his advocacy emboldens armed groups, Gumi maintained that negotiation with non-state actors is a global practice. “When they say we don’t negotiate with terrorists, I don’t know where they got that from,” he said. “It is not in the Bible, it is not in the Quran. America had an office negotiating with the Taliban in Qatar. Everyone negotiates with outlaws if it will stop bloodshed.”

He described the armed groups as largely “Fulani herdsmen” engaged in what he called an “existential war” linked to threats to their traditional livelihoods of cattle rearing. “They want to exist. That is their life.

READ ALSO:Insecurity: What Sheikh Gumi Told Me After Visiting Bandits Hideouts — Obasanjo

They know where to graze and how to care for their cattle,” he said, adding that the crisis has grown from farmer–herder tensions into widespread criminality.

Gumi has long faced public backlash for his engagements with bandits and for remarks such as his earlier claim that kidnapping schoolchildren is a “lesser evil” than killing soldiers.

Meanwhile, Gumi, in the same interview, also restated his view that the abduction of schoolchildren by armed groups constitutes a “lesser evil” than attacks on Nigerian soldiers, while emphasising that both acts are unacceptable.

“I think part of what I said then is correct and part of it wrong,” Gumi said, referring to his controversial 2021 statement.

“Saying kidnapping children is a lesser evil than killing soldiers, definitely it is lesser. But all of them are evil. All evils are not the same.”

France helped the authorities in Benin thwart a coup attempt at the weekend, an aide to President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday, revealing a French role in a regional effort that foiled the latest bid to stage a putsch in West Africa.

Macron led a “coordination effort” by speaking with key regional leaders, the aide, asking not to be named, told reporters, two days after Sunday’s failed coup bid.

France — at the request of the Beninese authorities — provided assistance “in terms of surveillance, observation and logistical support” to the Benin armed forces, the aide added.

Further details on the nature of the assistance were not immediately available.

A group of soldiers on Sunday took over Benin’s national television station and announced that President Patrice Talon had been deposed.

READ ALSO:

But loyalist army forces ultimately defeated the attempted putsch with the help of neighbouring Nigeria, which carried out military strikes on Cotonou and deployed troops.

West Africa has endured a sequence of coups in recent years that have severely eroded French influence and presence in what were French colonies until independence.

Mali saw coups in 2020 and 2021, followed by Burkina Faso in 2022 and then Niger in 2023. French forces that had been deployed in these countries for an anti-jihadist operation were consequently forced to withdraw.

A successful putsch in Benin, also a former French colony, would have been seen as a new blow to the standing of Paris and Macron in the region.
Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, was meanwhile rocked by a coup in November after elections which led to military authorities taking over.
– ‘Caused serious concern’ –

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On Sunday, Macron spoke with Talon as well as the leaders of top regional power Nigeria and Sierra Leone, which holds the presidency of West African regional bloc ECOWAS, the Elysee aide said.

The situation in Benin “caused serious concern for the president (Macron), who unequivocally condemned this attempt at destabilisation, which fortunately failed”, said the aide.

ECOWAS has said troops from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Sierra Leone were being deployed to Benin to help the government “preserve constitutional order”.
“Our community is in a state of emergency,” Omar Alieu Touray, president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said on Tuesday, highlighting the jihadist threat in the region as well as coups.

The bloc had threatened intervention during Niger’s 2023 coup that deposed president Mohamed Bazoum — an ally of Macron — but ultimately did not act.
France also did not carry out any intervention against the Niger coup.
“France has offered its full political support to ECOWAS, which made a very significant effort this weekend,” said the aide.

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At least a dozen plotters had been arrested and all hostages, including high-ranking officers, had been released by Monday, according to loyalist military sources.

Talon made his own television appearance late Sunday, assuring the country that the situation was “completely under control”.

Talon, 67, is due to hand over the reins of power in April after the maximum-allowed two terms leading Benin, which in recent years has been hit by jihadist violence in the north.

On Tuesday, former Beninese president Thomas Boni Yayi, whose opposition Democrats party has been excluded from next year’s presidential elections, condemned the failed coup.

“I condemn most vigorously and strongly condemn this bloody and shameful attack on our country,” said Boni Yayi, a former chairman of the African Union who served as Benin’s president from 2006 to 2016.

The transfer of state power “responds to a single cardinal and unconditional principle: that of the ballot box, that of the people, that of free and transparent elections”, Boni Yayi added in a video posted on Facebook.
(AFP)