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Nigeria’s Nobel Prize-winning author, Wole Soyinka, has disclosed that the United States has revoked his non-immigrant visa issued last year, informing him that he must reapply if he wishes to visit the country again.
The 91-year-old literary icon revealed the development during a press briefing on Tuesday, where he presented a letter from the U.S. Consulate General in Lagos requesting that he bring his passport for the physical cancellation of the visa.
The letter, dated October 23, stated that “additional information became available” after the visa was granted, prompting the decision.
The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria has yet to comment on the matter.
Soyinka, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, has frequently taught at several Ivy League universities in the United States since the mid-1990s.
In 2016, he publicly tore up his U.S. green card and renounced his American residency in protest of Donald Trump’s election as president.
Commenting on the revocation, Soyinka said, “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,” addressing those who may wish to invite him to U.S. events.
Earlier in July, the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria announced a new policy restricting Nigerian applicants for non-immigrant visas to single-entry three-month permits—replacing the previous multiple-entry, five-year validity system.
