Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has revealed that he anticipated the United States’ widespread revocation of visas and green cards under President Donald Trump’s administration, describing his accurate prediction as a response to what he called Trump’s “petty-minded dictator” tendencies.
In an interview with BBC News Pidgin, the celebrated playwright and social critic stated: “I saw it and I said, listen very carefully — and you can go and check this – I said, ‘When that man comes to power, the first thing he will do is cancel even the green cards’.”
Soyinka’s comments come amid heightened diplomatic tensions between Nigeria and the United States following Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” and his threats of military intervention over alleged Christian persecution.
The Nobel laureate, a long-standing critic of Trump, had previously made good on his vow to destroy his US Green Card when Trump first took office in 2025. “I had a horror of what is to come with Trump… I threw away the (green) card, and I have relocated, and I’m back to where I have always been,” he stated, referring to Nigeria.
Soyinka recently confirmed that his B1/B2 US visa had been officially revoked by the US Embassy, which requested he return the document for “physical cancellation” – a demand he described as “a joke.”
The visa developments occur against the backdrop of recent US policy changes that have restricted most non-immigrant visas for Nigerian citizens to single entry with three-month validity periods.
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Disclaimer: This article reports the personal views and experiences of Professor Wole Soyinka regarding US immigration policies. Individual visa cases are determined by consular officials based on applicable laws and regulations.
