Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka's US Visa Revoked, Says 'Banned For Criticising Trump'

Nigerian Nobel Prize winner and author Wole Soyinka said that his non-resident visa to enter the US has been rejected likely because he had criticised President Donald Trump.

Associated Press quoted Soyinka as saying that he believed it had little to do with him and was instead a product of the United States’ immigration policies.

“It’s not about me, I’m not really interested in going back to the United States. But a principle is involved. Human beings deserve to be treated decently wherever they are,” said the Nigerian author, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986 and became the first African to do so.

“I want to assure the consulate … that I’m very content with the revocation of my visa,” he said.

According to AP, Soyinka, who has taught

in the US and previously held a green card, joked on Tuesday that his green card “had an accident” eight years ago and “fell between a pair of scissors”. In 2017, he destroyed his green card in protest of Trump’s first inauguration.

The letter, which he received informing about his visa revocation, stated “additional information became available after the visa was issued,” as the reason for its revocation.

Though the embassy did not say what information they had received, Soyinka said that it might have been because he recently referred to Trump as a “white version of Idi Amin”. Idil Amid was a dictator who ruled Uganda from 1971 until 1979.

“Idi Amin was a man of international stature, a statesman, so when I called Donald Trump Idi Amin, I thought I was paying him a compliment,” Soyinka said. “He’s been behaving like a dictator.”

According to AP, Soyinka jokingly referred to it as a “love letter” and said that while he did not blame the officials, he would not be applying for another visa.

“I have no visa,” he said. “I am banned, obviously, from the United States, and if you want to see me, you know where to find me.”