By Amofokhai Williams
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has revealed that his United States visa was permanently revoked after he declined to attend a reinterview requested by the U.S. Consulate in Lagos.
Speaking during a media interaction at Freedom Park, Lagos, on Tuesday, he said the revocation was formally communicated to him in a letter dated 23 October, 2025.
Soyinka explained that the consulate had invited him earlier for a visa revalidation interview, which he chose to ignore.
“If they wish to cancel it, that is their business. I will not go there to help them do it,” he said defiantly.
Soyinka clarified that his decision was not out of hostility toward the U.S. government but a matter of personal principle.
“I will continue to welcome any American to my home if they have anything legitimate to do with me,” he added in a report by PM News.
Soyinka traced the strained relationship with the U.S. to 2016, when he tore up his American green card shortly after Donald Trump’s election as president.
He described the action as a symbolic protest against what he regarded as a divisive and discriminatory political climate.
Since then, he said he had relied on a B1/B2 visa for travel to the United States, until the recent development.
The Nobel Laureate said he had maintained cordial ties with the U.S. for many years until the tone of its politics shifted.
He urged the public to resist discrimination and injustice wherever they occur.
