Professor Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian Nobel Laureate in Literature, announced on Tuesday that the government of the United States of America has revoked his non-immigrant visa, rendering his entry into the country impossible for now.
The disclosure was made at a press conference convened at Kongi’s Harvest Gallery, Freedom Park, Lagos Island. Soyinka told journalists that he had been taken by surprise: despite his long and distinguished record as a global scholar and cultural voice, he said he was “unaware of any wrongdoing that could have warranted the revocation.”
According to multiple news reports, the U.S. Consulate in Lagos sent him a letter dated October 23, 2025, notifying him that his B1/B2 visa—commonly issued for business or tourism—had been revoked “pursuant to the authority contained in U.S. Department of State regulations” because “additional information became available after the visa was issued.”
In his address, Soyinka explained that he felt it necessary to hold the media parley so that “people in the United States who are expecting me for this event or that event do not waste their time.” He stated bluntly, “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.”
At the same time, he said he had no indication what the “additional information” might refer to and stressed that he had no criminal record, no felony, no conviction of any kind that would ordinarily justify such a revocation. “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,” he declared.
“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?”
The backdrop to this development includes growing changes in U.S. visa policy for Nigerians and other non-immigrant travellers. For instance, in July 2025 the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria announced that multiple-entry visas of up to five years would be replaced by single-entry three-month permits for many Nigerians.
In addition, earlier in September the U.S. Consulate in Lagos sent invitations to holders of B1/B2 visas including Soyinka to attend a “visa re-interview” scheduled for September 11. Soyinka publicly rejected that invitation, describing the procedure as strange, bizarre and inappropriate on a day that he considered one of global mourning (9/11).
“At first, I thought it was advance-fee fraud… I had never received that kind of letter from that or any other embassy,” he said. “So, at the beginning, I thought it was advance fee fraud because I had never received that kind of letter… I thought maybe AI had been generating generic letters. It was very strange.” Then later he added: “So the question of going to such an interview is totally out of consideration.”
Soyinka also used stark language to critique the U.S. leadership in connection with those visa developments. In his September 2025 interview, he said: “Are we looking in the case of the United States, at the white Idi Amin, for instance? If you look very closely at the conduct, the behaviour, the mentality of the present incumbent president, you find out there are Idi Amins of different colours. And if Idi Amin says I should come to his embassy, I would think twice before going because I don’t know what is waiting for me on the other side of the door.”
In that sense, Soyinka’s refusal to attend the re-interview, and now the visa revocation, are being framed by him not merely as procedural mishaps but as symptomatic of deeper diplomatic and ideological unease.
The background of Soyinka’s relationship with the U.S. helps to contextualize this moment. He has had regular visiting professorships at American Ivy League institutions since winning the Nobel Prize in 1986. In 2016, ahead of the U.S. election that brought Donald Trump to power, Soyinka pledged he would tear up his U.S. green card; he followed through, saying he “disengaged” from the U.S. and returned to Nigeria in protest of what he perceived as the declining trajectory of American global leadership and values.
This history of principled dissent paired now with the unexpected visa cancellation—adds a layer of symbolic weight to what might otherwise appear a routine administrative action.
For now, Soyinka told journalists he would seek clarity but not be deterred from his work. “If you want to see me, you know where to find me,” he reiterated, walking back the notion of travel being the measure of his engagement. While the U.S. Consulate declined immediate comment, the incident resonates in a wider moment of shifting global mobility and diplomatic fences.