THE United States under President Donald Trump has revoked the visa of globally renowned scholar, Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.
The scholar announced this at Kongi’s Harvest Gallery, Freedom Park, Lagos Island, on Tuesday.
He said he was unaware of any wrongdoing that could have warranted the revocation.
“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.”
“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 said.
According to Soyinka, the US Consulate informed him of the revocation via a letter.
“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.”
“I’ve started looking back—have I ever misbehaved toward the United States of America? Do I have a history? Have I been convicted? Have I gone against the law anywhere?”
Soyinka has been very critical of Trump.
In the buildup to Trump’s first White House run, Soyinka had said he would destroy his green card if Trump was declared winner of the presidential election in US.
Following the victory of Trump, the scholar followed through on this promise and stayed away from the US.
However, after Trump was convicted during his move to return to the White House, Soyinka indicated that he may reapply for permanent residency in the United States.
VAM NEWS reports that Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Reacting to Trump’s conviction, Soyinka had said he might reconsider his decision and reapply for permanent residency in the US.
“Seeing that this trite, personal gesture attracted such inordinate attention at the time, let me answer the question before it is asked: Yes, I may choose to apply for restoration of my card of Permanent Residence, known as the Green Card. Possibly,” he said in a Friday statement.
Soyinka described the conviction as “daybreak on a new democratic promise”.
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He said: “For millions in anguished parts of the world, certainly for us in vast swathes of the African continent, this is daybreak on a new democratic promise. The warning is clear. sooner or later, the clamour of equity breaks down the stoutest gates on guard across the citadel of impunity.
“The Trump debacle is a challenge also, a call to preparedness and steadfastness. Installed and putative fascisms – secular, military or theocratic – will extract from this only the wrong lessons, batten down and ‘crack down’ in self-protection.”
