Olushola Omogbehin
Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said he predicted mass revocation of visas and green cards by the United States Government when Donald Trump becomes president.
According to Punch reports, Soyinka said he knew that the assumption of Donald Trump into the office as President, “the first thing he will do is cancel even the green cards.”
“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’,.” he said
Soyinka, whose visa was recently revoked by the US, made this statement in the midst of diplomatic row between Nigeria and the US after Trump designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern,” because of alleged Christian genocide in the country.
Earlier, as a critic of Trump, Soyinka had threatened ahead of Trump’s first inauguration to tear his Green Card once Trump was sworn in.
The report by Punch revealed Soyinka to have said on the sideline of an education conference at the University of Johannesburg that: “I have already done it, I have disengaged (from the United States). I have done what I said I would do.”
He explained further that: “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.”
As prophesied by Soyinka, in July 2025, the US Department of State announced an update to its non-immigrant visa policy for Nigerian citizens.
In the press release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, “most non-immigrant and non-diplomatic visas issued to citizens of Nigeria will be single-entry visas with a three-month validity period.”
