How I Predicted Mass US Visa Revocations Under Trump - Wole Soyinka

Kindly Share This

By Alofe Ayomoses

Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka says he had long predicted that the United States government would embark on mass visa and green card revocations once Donald Trump became President.

Speaking in an interview with BBC News Pidgin on Wednesday, Soyinka, whose own visa was recently revoked by the US authorities, said Trump’s leadership has continued to reflect “a petty-minded dictatorship” with deep hostility toward immigrants and minorities.

Soyinka said, “This is a petty-minded dictator, you see how he deals with his objects of hate. We saw that dark side of the American side. There were more killings, extrajudicial killings by the police of black people, of minorities, during that build-up, during the campaign, and on account of hate rhetoric, the hate rhetoric of this individual.

“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 remarks came amid renewed diplomatic tensions between Nigeria and the United States, after President Trump recently listed Nigeria among “Countries of Particular Concern,” citing what he called Christian genocide in the country.

The US President had, over the weekend, issued a series of posts on X warning that if the Nigerian government failed to halt killings, Washington would intervene “gun-ablazing.” His comments triggered widespread alarm and condemnation both within Nigeria and abroad.

Soyinka, a long-time critic of Trump, had earlier made headlines in 2016 when he announced that he would destroy his US Green Card if Trump became president, a promise he eventually fulfilled.

“I have already done it, I have disengaged (from the United States). I have done what I said I would do,” Soyinka said at the time, during an education conference at the University of Johannesburg, according to AFP.

He added, “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,” referring to his home country, Nigeria.

In July 2025, the US Department of State announced a new visa policy restricting most non-immigrant and non-diplomatic visas issued to Nigerians to single-entry with a three-month validity period.

According to a press release from the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, the measure was part of a broader review of bilateral travel and immigration policies.

Last week, Soyinka revealed during a media interaction in Lagos that the U.S. Consulate had revoked his B1/B2 visa.

In a letter dated October 23, 2025, the Consulate requested that he submit the visa to the embassy “for physical cancellation,” a move the Nobel laureate described as “a joke.”