When Nigeria’s living legend speaks, the country listens, and sometimes squirms.
On 9th December evening in Lagos, Professor Wole Soyinka turned a journalism awards ceremony into a national moment of truth. While handing an honour to poet Odia Ofeimun, the 91-year-old Nobel winner suddenly paused and dropped a bombshell that has set social media on fire.
“I saw Seyi Tinubu the other day,” he began, voice calm but cutting. “I counted no fewer than fifteen soldiers armed to the teeth. Fifteen! That convoy could have taken over a small country.”
Then came the line everyone is repeating: “President Tinubu didn’t need to send the Air Force to stop the coup in Benin Republic last week. He should have just sent his son.”
The room erupted in nervous laughter. Phones came out. Within hours the clip was everywhere.
Soyinka revealed he immediately called National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu to complain. “Let’s not overdo things,” he warned. “These children are not heads of state. They are not potentates.”
In a Nigeria where ordinary citizens dodge kidnappers and soldiers battle bandits with outdated rifles, the sight of the president’s son moving with what looked like a private army felt obscene to many.
Seyi Tinubu, 39, holds no official position, yet his security detail apparently rivals that of serving governors. Sources whisper the escort includes Department of State Services operatives, mobile policemen and regular soldiers, sometimes rolling in a convoy that snarls Lagos traffic for minutes.
As fuel queues return and food prices soar, Soyinka’s words landed like a slap. “This is not the first president with family,” he said. “Children have to know their place.”
By Wednesday morning #SeyiTinubu and #SoyinkaSpeaks were trending. Some hailed the elder statesman for courage; others quietly asked whose son would dare move with fewer guns in today’s Nigeria.
One thing is clear: when Kongi speaks, even the powerful feel the heat.
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