ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has publicly stated that the United States has revoked his non-immigrant visa, effectively banning him from the country.
The 91-year-old author, who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986, told a news conference on Tuesday that the US Consulate requested he bring in his passport so his visa could be cancelled in person, citing that “new unspecified information had come to light.”
Soyinka referred to the request as a “rather curious love letter from an embassy” and advised organizations hoping to host him in the US “not to waste their time.”
The US Embassy in Nigeria has responded by stating it cannot comment on individual visa cases.
History of political protest
Soyinka has long been a vocal critic of US policies, particularly those of the Trump administration. In 2016, the acclaimed author—who has held regular teaching engagements at US universities for the past 30 years—renounced his permanent residency.
During the news conference, Soyinka reaffirmed that he no longer possessed his green card (permanent residence permit), jokingly adding that it had “fallen between the fingers of a pair of scissors and it got cut into a couple of pieces.”
The Nobel laureate linked the current visa revocation to his outspoken criticism of the former administration, confirming: “I have no visa. I am banned,” he said on Tuesday.
‘Idi Amin in white face’
Soyinka speculated that his recent, highly publicized comparison of President Trump to a notorious African dictator may have contributed to the visa decision.
“When I called Donald Trump Idi Amin, I thought I was paying him a compliment,” Soyinka said, “he’s been behaving like a dictator.”
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Idi Amin, a Ugandan military officer, ruled Uganda as a dictator from 1971 to 1979 and is infamous for his brutal regime and widespread human rights abuses.
When asked by reporters whether he would consider traveling back to the US, the author responded curtly: “How old am I?”
The incident comes months after the US State Department announced significant changes to its non-immigrant visa policy for several African countries in July.
The new policy stated that most non-diplomatic visas issued to nationals of Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Ghana would be single-entry and valid for only three months, a sharp rollback from the previous system which allowed up to five-year, multiple-entry visas.
