Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has criticised what he called the excessive security convoy accompanying Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu, describing it as an unnecessary and troubling display of state resources.

In a viral video, Soyinka recounted his shock after encountering what he said looked like a “small battalion” of heavily armed operatives guarding Seyi during a visit to a hotel in the Ikoyi area of Lagos.

According to him, the deployment was so overwhelming that he initially assumed a movie scene was being filmed, only realising the truth when Seyi stepped forward to greet him politely.

Soyinka said he later learned that the entire formation was assigned solely to the president’s son—a revelation he described as alarming.

“I couldn’t believe it. Later I did some investigative journalism, and I found that apparently this is how this young man goes around with his battalion, his heavily armed soldiers,” he said, adding that the encounter left him disturbed enough to attempt reaching the National Security Adviser for clarification.

The Nobel Laureate warned that assigning such a heavy security detail to one individual, particularly a president’s son, sends the wrong message and distorts national security priorities.

“Children should know their place. They are not heads of state,” Soyinka said, adding with a hint of humour that with the size of Seyi’s escort, the president might as well deploy him to quell future unrest.