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Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has been barred from entering the United States after the government revoked his visa, a move the celebrated playwright said he does not understand.
Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday at Kongi’s Harvest Gallery, Freedom Park, Lagos Island, Lagos State, Mr Soyinka said he was unaware of any action that could have prompted the revocation.
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“I have no visa; I am banned, obviously, from the United States. And if you want to see me, you know where to find me,” he told journalists, according to The Punch.
He added, “It is necessary for me to hold this conference so that people in the United States who are expecting me for this event or that event do not waste their time.”
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The US Consulate in Lagos informed him of the revocation in a letter dated 23 October, stating, “This letter serves as official notification by the United States Consulate General in Lagos that the non-immigrant visa listed below has been revoked pursuant to the authority contained in the U.S. Department of State regulations.”
Mr Soyinka, a professor, said he is reflecting on his history with the US to understand the decision.
“I’m still looking into my past history… I don’t have any past criminal record or even a felony or misdemeanour to qualify for the revocation,” he said.
The development comes amid recent tightening of US travel policies affecting Nigerians. In July, the US Embassy in Nigeria announced that most non-immigrant visas would become single-entry with a three-month validity, down from five-year, multiple-entry permits.
A separate report indicated that the embassy revoked visas of many Nigerian citizens without detailed explanation, citing only that “new information became available after the visa was issued.”
Soyinka once shredded US Green Card
But long before the recent visa policy shifts in the US, Mr Soyinka, in 2016 shredded his Green Card that conferred US permanent residency on him.
Mr Soyinka took the step because Donald Trump emerged victorious in the 2016 US presidential election to take his first term in office in January 2017.
It marked a dramatic turn in the Nobel laureate’s status in the US.
Six days before the election which was held on 8 November 2016, Mr Soyinka, incensed by Mr Trump’s eccentric campaign rhetoric and his seeming disregard for some universal values, vowed to give up his US permanent residency status if Mr Trump won.
He told some students at the Oxford University’s Ertegun House that he would stage a US “Wolexit”, drawing on ‘Brexit’ that symbolised the United Kingdom’s moves to exit the European Union at the time.
“If in the unlikely event he does win, the first thing he’ll do is to say [that] all green-card holders must reapply to come back into the US. Well, I’m not waiting for that,” Mr Soyinka said. “The moment they announce his victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up.”
Days after Mr Trump won the election, Mr Soyinka insisted he would destroy the US Green Card on his own accord, but would not be railroaded into taking the action.
In December 2016, less than a month after Mr Trump won the election, Mr Soyinka announced he had torn his US Green Card.
“I’ve done it,” he told channel eNCA when asked if he had followed through on his vow.
He also told The Atlantic in January 2017. “I don’t have strong enough fingers to tear up a Green Card. As long as Trump is in charge, if I absolutely have to visit the United States, I prefer to go in the queue for a regular visa with others. I’m no longer part of the society, not even as a resident.”
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Mr Soyinka held a B1/B2 visa, for temporary business or tourism travel.
On 9 September, he told TheNEWS/PMNEWS that he received an invitation from the American Consulate sent to Nigerians with B1/B2 visa to appear for a “visa reinterview”, but vowed not to honour it.
He said he initially thought the invitation “was advance-fee fraud”.
“I had never received that kind of letter from any embassy. I even thought maybe AI generated it,” he told PM News.
The Nobel laureate maintained that he enjoyed cordial relations with US diplomatic officials and expressed hope that the situation would be clarified
