Nigerian winner of Nobel says US has withdrawn his visa
(MENAFN) Nigerian Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka has announced that the US has cancelled his visa, effectively barring him from entering the country. The 91-year-old writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, said that the US consulate requested he bring his passport in person so his visa could be formally revoked due to “new unspecified information.”
Soyinka described the request as “a rather curious love letter from an embassy” during a press conference on Tuesday and advised organisations wishing to invite him to the US “not to waste their time.” The US embassy in Nigeria declined to comment on individual cases.
Previously, Soyinka held permanent US residency but renounced it in 2016, tearing up his green card in protest of President Donald Trump’s election. He jokingly said the card had “fallen between the fingers of a pair of scissors and it got cut into a couple of pieces.”
The literary figure has taught at American universities regularly for the past three decades. “I have no visa. I am banned,” he stated on Tuesday. Soyinka has frequently criticised Trump’s immigration policies and suggested that his visa revocation may be linked to his outspoken remarks, including comparing Trump to Uganda’s dictator.
“When I called Donald Trump Idi Amin, I thought I was paying him a compliment,” Soyinka said. “He’s been behaving like a dictator.” Idi Amin, who ruled Uganda from 1971 to 1979, was notorious for his oppressive and violent regime.
Asked if he might return to the US, Soyinka replied, “How old am I?” In July, the US State Department announced major changes to non-immigrant visa rules for Nigerians and citizens of several other African nations, limiting most visas to single-entry with a three-month validity, replacing the previous multi-year, multiple-entry permits.
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