Shock and disbelief swept through Nigeria’s media circle on Tuesday after Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka revealed that the President Donald Trump-led United States government has revoked his visa, effectively barring him from entering the country.
Speaking at a media parley at Kongi’s Harvest Gallery, Freedom Park, Lagos Island, Soyinka said the decision caught him completely off guard, insisting he had done nothing to deserve such treatment.
“It is necessary for me to hold this conference so that people in the United States who are expecting me for this event or that event do not waste their time. 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,” he told journalists.
The professor said the US Consulate notified him of the revocation in a letter dated October 23, 2025. “This letter serves as official notification by the United States Consulate General in Lagos that the nonimmigrant visa listed below has been revoked pursuant to the authority contained in U.S. Department of State regulations,” the letter read.
Still puzzled by the development, Soyinka said, “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. 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 literary legend disclosed that he had dismissed the letter as a scam, thinking it was one of the fraudulent schemes that exploit Nigerians seeking visas.
“I thought it came from scammers who prey on those eager to get visas elsewhere… I even thought that maybe AI had been generating generic letters. It was very strange,” he said.
Soyinka, who holds a B1/B2 visa, meant for business and tourism, had earlier turned down a request for a visa re-interview by the US Consulate, which was scheduled for September 11.
Observers now link the shock move to America’s tightening immigration policies, even as questions continue to swirl around why the world-renowned writer, and once celebrated on US stages and campuses, would suddenly find himself barred from the country he long frequented.
