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| Wole Soyinka |
Nigerian
Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has said that he would be leaving the US on
the day president-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated next year. The
announcement followed after he had been mocked by Nigerians after last
week threatening that he would cut up his green card should Trump win
the elections.
Soyinka lives in New York, where he is scholar-in-residence at New York University’s Institute of African American Affairs.
The threat was made while giving a speech at Oxford University last week. According to Nigeria’s Daily Trust, he said: “If in the unlikely event he (Trump) does win, the first thing he’ll do is to say 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.”
AFter the announcement of Trump’s victory, Nigerian social media users were quick to ask him if he would indeed follow up on his promise, to which he replied: “Come January 20, 2017; watch my WOLEXIT!”
Whether he will actually cut up his green card, which allows permanent residency in the US, remains to be seen. One legal expert has already warned that doing so could result in a jail sentence of three to seven years.
The Vanguard newspaper yesterday reported that legal luminary Kayode Ajulo cautioned Soyinka against carrying out his threat on Thursday in Abuja.
“Under the American law losing or having your U.S. green card destroyed can be a serious problem,’’ he said, adding that that the literary icon was free to leave the country but did not have to tear the card; instead he should return the card as required by the law.
James Archibald / Cape Town - DHA
The threat was made while giving a speech at Oxford University last week. According to Nigeria’s Daily Trust, he said: “If in the unlikely event he (Trump) does win, the first thing he’ll do is to say 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.”
AFter the announcement of Trump’s victory, Nigerian social media users were quick to ask him if he would indeed follow up on his promise, to which he replied: “Come January 20, 2017; watch my WOLEXIT!”
Whether he will actually cut up his green card, which allows permanent residency in the US, remains to be seen. One legal expert has already warned that doing so could result in a jail sentence of three to seven years.
The Vanguard newspaper yesterday reported that legal luminary Kayode Ajulo cautioned Soyinka against carrying out his threat on Thursday in Abuja.
“Under the American law losing or having your U.S. green card destroyed can be a serious problem,’’ he said, adding that that the literary icon was free to leave the country but did not have to tear the card; instead he should return the card as required by the law.
James Archibald / Cape Town - DHA
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