Our reporter/ Professor Wole Soyinka has confirmed that the United States of America has revoked his visa, making his entry into the country impossible for now.
The Nobel Laureate, who made the disclosure during a media parley held at Kongi’s Harvest Gallery, Freedom Park, Lagos Island, on Tuesday, 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 told journalists.
The reason for the visa revocation remains unclear, as Soyinka himself said he was still in the dark about it.
According to Soyinka, the US Consulate informed him of the revocation in a letter dated October 23, 2025.
He expressed confusion over the development, saying, “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?”
Recall that Soyinka did renounce his U.S. “green card” (permanent resident status) in protest of President Donald Trump’s election in 2016.
On 2 November, six days before the US election, Soyinka told a student audience at Oxford University’s Ertegun House that he would hold his own, self-described “Wolexit” if Trump won, and destroy his green card. “If in the unlikely event he does win, the first thing he’ll do is to say [that] all green-card holders must reapply to come back into the US. Well, I’m not waiting for that,” he said at the time. “The moment they announce his victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up.”
Speaking with the Atlantic in an interview shortly after the election, Soyinka confirmed he had followed through on his pledge to destroy his green card as he celebrated Thanksgiving with his family in the US.
Soyinka, said he had made his green card “inoperable”. He did not expand on how he had destroyed it, but said: “I don’t have strong enough fingers to tear up a green card. As long as Trump is in charge, if I absolutely have to visit the United States, I prefer to go in the queue for a regular visa with others. I’m no longer part of the society, not even as a resident.”
Soyinka described the act then as cathartic: “I delivered myself from uncertainty, from discomfort, from internal turmoil.”
With media reports
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