Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has openly criticized President Bola Tinubu’s decision to deploy the Nigerian Air Force to the Benin Republic in response to the failed coup attempt against President Patrice Talon. Speaking in Lagos on Monday at the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) Awards, the literary icon questioned the necessity of such a military intervention.
The Critique
Soyinka humorously suggested that instead of mobilizing the military, the President could have simply dispatched his son, Seyi Tinubu, to suppress the insurrection. He based this suggestion on a recent personal encounter where he observed Seyi traveling with a security detail so massive it resembled a small army.
He said:
“President Tinubu didn’t have to send the Air Force and Military to deal with the insurrection to our sense of security and equilibrium; no there are easier ways of doing it.
Let me tell you where Tinubu should have looked for forces to quell that insurrection, right here in Lagos or in Abuja perhaps, but there was no need to call the military or the Air Force.”
The Encounter
Soyinka recounted seeing Seyi in Lagos about two months prior, describing the scene as looking like a movie production due to the sheer number of armed operatives surrounding him.
He continued:
“I will tell you what happened in one of my home visits just two months ago, I was coming out of a hotel and I saw what looked like a film set, a young man detached himself from the actors and came over to greet me very nicely politely.
“I looked around and there was nearly a whole battalion occupying the ground of that hotel in Ikoyi. So I got back in my car and asked who that young man was and he told me.
“I saw the SWAT team, a mixture of heavily armed, at least 15 heavily armed to the teeth security personnel, looked sufficient to take over a small neighbouring country like Benin.
“I think the next time the president should just call and say ‘Seyi go and quell the rebellion over there’. I was so astonished that I started looking for the NSA.”