By Olawale Lamina
Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has taken his first shot at criticizing the Tinubu’s government, but this time, he is calling for withdrawal of security personnel attached to the son of the President, Mr. Seyi Tinubu.
He stated this on the sidelines of the annual Wole Soyinka Prize for Investigative journalism, WSCIJ, which held on Tuesday at the renamed National Arts Theatre Lagos, now Wole Soyinka Center for Culture and Creative Arts, Iganmu Lagos State.
He explained how he was astonished after watching an unusually large detachment of armed personnel guarding the president’s son at a hotel in Ikoyi. which led him to seek an audience with the National Security Adviser to appraise him of the situation and find out if the security personnel were officially assigned. He said the spectacle represented for him, a gross misallocation of state resources.
The laureate compared the scene he witnessed to that of a movie set and was compelled to ask one of the crowd members, “are you shooting somebody here?” ( to literally mean, are you shooting a film?)
He noted with surprise that
close to 15 heavily armed security operatives ( armed to the teeth) were around Mr. Tinubu junior. He queried if Nigeria was the only country with a head of state having their children around.
Soyinka, who had an award plaque waiting to be presented by his side, chose to digress and direct public attention at the security around the son of President Tinubu, against the backdrop of prevailing insecurity in the country, which the government is currently addressing using different measures.
Recall that, only recently, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, at the behest of the President withdrew a number of police escorts assigned to the Very Important Personalities, VIPs in the country, to shore up the number of police officers available to provide security to the general public and thereby improve the operational efficiency of the Nigeria Police Force.
The 91-year-old playwright and essayist described the security extravaganza around Mr. Sey Tinubu as unnecessary, amidst the current security situation in the country lately.
Before now, many have criticized the poet for not criticizing the policies and reforms of the Tinubu led administration different from what it was from the previous administrations. He had also responded that he would not be forced to speak against the government, even though it was his common practice to study a new government for a year before criticizing whatever may be wrong with the government. He said he would be speaking whenever he felt ready to do so.
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