Soyinka fulfils promise, shreds U.S. residency green card and returns to Nigeria

Nigerian poet and activist Wole Soyinka has revealed that he has fulfilled his promise to cut up his American residency green card in protest, after the triumph of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential polls. Soyinka says he has relocated to Nigeria as he promised he would do before the elections if Trump won the presidential race.

“I have already done it, I have disengaged (from the United States). I have done what I said I would do,” the 82-year-old reportedly told AFP on the side-lines of an education conference at the University of Johannesburg.

“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 (Nigeria)” news channel eNCA reported.

Before the elections Soyinka said he will shred his green card in the event of a Trump victory. “The moment they announce his victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up” Soyinka declared.

Wole-Soyinka. Source: Rex Features/AP

Soyinka made the remarks while addressing students at a seminar at Oxford University and said “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,”

“The moment they announce his victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up”.

While many on social media thought Soyinka was bluffing, poking fun at the writer for dragging his feet in cutting up his residency permit after Trump emerged victorious, the renowned poet has stuck to his words.

Read: I’m not cutting up my green card just yet, Wole Soyinka says

A strong critic of the previous regimes in Nigeria, Soyinka has never been the one to shy away from speaking his mind on pertinent political and human rights issues. Last year before Nigeria’s presidential election, the Nobel laureate strongly criticised Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari describing the two as “problematic candidates,” because of their poor governing records.

For many years Soyinka has been at the forefront of the pro-democracy struggle in the country, and his relocation to Nigeria will certainly shake things up.