* Plus what Soyinka said
The Upper legislative chambers, on Wednesday, sought for an exemption from the order by President Bola Tinubu for the withdrawal of police personnel attached to ‘Very Important Persons’ (VIPs) nationwide.
The Senate’ s request was sequel to a Point of Order on Privilege raised by Sen. Abdul Ningi (PDP-Bauchi) during plenary.
The president had, on November 23, ordered the withdrawal of police personnel attached to VIPs nationwide.
He also directed that the officers be redeployed to strengthen core policing duties across communities.
In his point of order, Ningi complained about the withdrawal of his only police orderly, while many political office holders in the country were still enjoying police cover.
He demanded that it should be done across board in the spirit of fairness and equity.
Ningi said: “Mr President, I’ve been around this National Assembly since 1999. Right from 1999, I was having one police orderly.
“I have never questioned any additional security personnel. I woke up today and I was told my police orderly and other police orderlies had been withdrawn.
“Mr President, I don’t have any problem with that. My problem is that this thing should go across the board.
“Let’s see what happens from the Office of the President, to the Vice-President, to the Senate President, to the Speaker of the House, to the Ministers.
“After they had withdrawn my orderly, I saw two convoys of ministers and they were carrying lots of security personnel.
“I have also seen daughters and sons of political office holders having orderlies and having security covers. Mr President, I have seen singers having orderlies.
“I cannot ever imagine that a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who has been here for a very long time having only one orderly and he was withdrawn.”
“This is unheard of in any democracy. And that’s why I said this is a matter that insults me; it concerns me; it is not right and it should be taken with all the seriousness it deserves,” he said.
The senator urged the Senate President to ask the Chairman of the Committee on Police to please investigate why other people were having security covers in spite of the presidential order.
“You cannot just put the National Assembly as scape goats while others enjoy the privileges of security control,” he said.
In his remarks, Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, who presided over plenary, said that the leadership of the senate had a meeting on the issue.
“Yesterday, I’m sure you saw us, we had a leadership meeting. This was discussed and we took an action and we expect the outcome of that action to be available to us today.
“It is of concern to us and I will raise the issue. And we’re dealing with that. We will be at the top of the situation,” Barau said.
He assured that the issue raised would be taken seriously, stressing: “I’m sure we have a president who listens to us and, by the grace of God, he will exempt us from that order.
“We all stand by Mr President in his effort to deal with the security problem in our country.
“The president is doing very well and we always commend him because we know what he’s doing,” he said.
Also, Professor Wole Soyinka raiseeld the matter at the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Awards in Lagos on Tuesday, the video of which went viral.
He told the audience that he was at one hotel in Ikoyi two months ago when he saw large security details with Seyi Tinubu, son of the President.
Soyinka said he contact National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu on phone.
As the Nobel Laureate put it; “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.”
Humorously, Soyinka 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.
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.”
However, analysts said that Soyinka saw the large security personnel around Seyi two months ago, not after the President ordered Police orderlies from following VIPs.
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