Copyright bbc
The Nobel laureate has previously held permanent residency in the US but renounced it in 2016, tearing up his green card in protest of President Donald Trump's election. The green card is a permanent residence permit for the US - prized by many African immigrants to the US. Soyinka affirmed on Tuesday that he no longer had his green card – and jokingly added that it had "fallen between the fingers of a pair of scissors and it got cut into a couple of pieces". The famed author has had regular teaching engagements at US universities for the past 30 years. "I have no visa. I am banned," he said on Tuesday. Soyinka has long been critical of the Trump administration's radical stance on immigration and linked the visa revocation to his outspoken criticism. He said his recent comparison of Trump to Uganda's dictator - "Idi Amin in white face" - may have contributed to the current situation. "When I called Donald Trump Idi Amin, I thought I was paying him a compliment," Soyinka said, "he's been behaving like a dictator." Idi Amin was a Ugandan military officer and dictator who ruled the country from 1971 to 1979, infamous for his brutal regime and widespread human rights abuses. When asked if he would consider going back to the US, Soyinka said: "How old am I?" In July, the US State Department announced sweeping changes to its non-immigrant visa policy for citizens of Nigeria and several other African countries. According to the policy, nearly all non-immigrant and non-diplomatic visas issued to Nigerians and nationals of Cameroon, Ethiopia and Ghana would now be single-entry and valid for only three months, rolling back the up to five-year, multiple-entry visas they had enjoyed previously.
