How do you fight a man who only fights injustice? Is President Trump using this as vengeance? Is the US trying to subdue Nigeria by discomfiting a Nobel Laureate, a man who needs no introduction? Could this be the fate of other prominent Africans soon? How many will be turned into tortoises looking for ways to pass through the Western Hemisphere?
The Tinubu administration needs to quickly sit down with the Trump administration and iron out whatever the problem may be, and find an everlasting and quick solution to the brouhaha
IN solidarity, I want to say: Viva Kongi! Will I be a target? Can I be banned from the US as well? Who knows?
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, is 91 years old. His US visa has reportedly been revoked. He has lived and lectured in the US. He once held a Green Card, which, in 2016, he dramatically tore up and renounced his American residency in protest of the first election of President Donald Trump. I visited him once in his office in Lagos, and he showed me the torn Green Card.
The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria stated in July that Nigerians seeking to travel to the U.S. on non-immigrant visas would now receive single-entry, three-month permits, rolling back the up to five-year, multiple-entry visas they had previously enjoyed.
Also in July, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, said Nigeria will not bow to pressure from the Trump administration to accept Venezuelan deportees or third-country prisoners from the US.
His comments followed threats from Washington to restrict visas and hike tariffs on countries that do not comply with its deportation policy.
However, the US embassy in Abuja denied that the Trump administration was engaging in tit-for-tat clampdowns on visas as punishment for Nigeria not giving in to their demands. The real reason for the visa restrictions, it claimed, was “technical and security benchmarks” that had to be respected.
In a BBC report by Yūsuf Akínpẹ̀lú & Natasha Booty, Tuggar was quoted saying: “You have to also bear in mind that the US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prison. It will be difficult for a country like Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria. We have enough problems of our own; we cannot accept Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria, for crying out loud,” he concluded.
Somehow, Ghana was able to negotiate with the US government diplomatically, and all became well again.
Is Professor Soyinka a scapegoat? Was there a smokescreen? (A new word I learned recently from a rabid dog.)
Accompanied by the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Honourable Abike Dabiri, to the United Nations in March, Professor Wole Soyinka delivered a keynote address at the commemoration of this year’s International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The event, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, came under the theme: “Acknowledge the past. Repair the present. Build a future of dignity and justice.” In his speech, he lamented the high incidence of the slave trade in many parts of the world, particularly in Africa, despite all efforts geared towards eradicating the menace.
How do you fight a man who only fights injustice? Is President Trump using this as vengeance? Is the US trying to subdue Nigeria by discomfiting a Nobel Laureate, a man who needs no introduction? Could this be the fate of other prominent Africans soon? How many will be turned into tortoises looking for ways to pass through the Western Hemisphere?
The Tinubu administration needs to quickly sit down with the Trump administration and iron out whatever the problem may be, and find an everlasting and quick solution to the brouhaha. Why allow the US embassy to make a jest of our National Pride? Are we really in the Era of Cancel Culture?
I will close with a Japanese proverb about solidarity: “One arrow can easily be broken, but not ten in a bundle,” which means unity is strength.
- Onyeka Nwelue, writer, is the director of Africa Center Mexico