By Taiwo Amodu
Nobel laureate, Prof.Wole Soyinka, has finally fulfilled his pledge to destroy his United States Green Card over the victory of Donald Trump, in the American presidential election.
Trump defeated democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton in the November 8, 2016 poll.
Soyinka, a scholar-in-residence at New York University’s Institute of African American Affairs, had vowed to give up his permanent US residency, over Trump’s promise to get tough on immigration.
“If, in the unlikely event he does win, the first thing he will 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,” Soyinka said, then.
After Trump was declared president-elect, Soyinka’s card-cutting threat gained traction, with many Nigerians, particularly on social media, asking the scholar to match his words with action.
One of those who asked Professor Soyinka to keep his words was Professor of Virology and former Petroleum Resources minister, Tam David West.
“I know Soyinka is an honourable man. I am waiting for him to destroy his Green Card and return to Nigeria, honourably. If he does not come back, he is dishonourable. He should keep to his words. It was not necessary for him to make that statement at all. In the first instance, he never said he would cut his Green Card when Trump takes office, he said ‘if he is elected president.’
“So, Soyinka should honourably cut his card and honourably return to Nigeria.”
But, speaking at a conference in South Africa, the internationally-acclaimed playwright and poet said he has thrown away the Green Card and returned to where he had always been. “I have already done it; I have disengaged (from the United States). I have done what I said I would do.
“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.”