Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka might have made up his mind to leave the United States of America in reaction to the victory of Donald Trump who defeated Hilary Clinton in the United States presidential election which was concluded in the early hours of Wednesday.
Many Nigerians were apprehensive on the response of Soyinka to the outcome of the election because the Nobel Laureate publicly spoke against the candidacy of Trump.
Our correspondent made frantic efforts to reach Soyinka but when all the attempts failed, an email message was sent to him. Soyinka in his reply that reached one of our correspondents at 6p.m. on Wednesday, the Nobel Laureate simply said: “All is set to Wolexit!”
This, no doubt, means he was set to leave the USA. Soyinka had told the BBC that he would cut up his green card if Trump wins the US presidency. He is currently a scholar-in-residence at New York University’s Institute of African American Affairs. Speaking at the Oxford University in London, Soyinka said it was highly “unlikely that Trump would win the elections.”
He, however, cautioned that if he did, the “first thing he’ll do is to say [that] all green card holders must reapply to come into the US. “Well, I am not waiting for that.
The moment they announce his victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up,” Soyinka was quoted as saying. Though he is yet to respond officially, the question on the lips of many Nigerians is: Will Soyinka tear his green card?
-NT