Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, says he feels saddened by happenings in the United States, where Donald Trump is in the saddle as President.
Soyinka, who had in 2016 threatened to shred his green card if Trump won the election and became President, remarked: “It’s one of the saddest developing phenomena that I know of.”
“I just feel very, very sad that what’s happening in the States should be happening in such a potentially progressive country,” the nonagenarian world-acclaimed writer said in a conversation with freelance arts journalist, Laura Collins-Hughes, published in the New York Times.
In a piece titled, “At 90, Wole Soyinka Revisits His Younger, More Optimistic Self,” Collins-Hughes quoted the Nobel laureate as saying he feels distressed by recent events in the United States, where he once lived in self-imposed exile, tagging the country “MAGA land.”
Asked if he feels safe in the US these days, given the current political atmosphere in which foreign governments — including Britain, Germany and Canada — have warned their citizens about travelling to the United States, Soyinka said, “Oh, I’ve lived in a constant state of nonsafety.”
“So I’m used to that. If I’m walking through the street and they pick me up, I have no problem whatsoever. You know, my laptop is where it is. It’s up in the clouds,” he said with a smile.
Since his second coming, Trump has launched a vigorous campaign against irregular immigrants in America while also slapping tariff hikes on trade partners across the globe, including Nigeria, where he imposed 14% on Nigerian exports to the US.
America cited Nigeria’s ban on 25 items from the US for its decision to impose a 14% tariff on Nigerian goods.
In a 2026 conversation with The INTERVIEW, Soyinka expressed resentment at Trump’s emergence as US President, saying it spelt trouble for humanity.
He then said he would tear his green card on January 20, 2017, the day Trump was to be inaugurated as the 45th President of the US.
Asked if he still intended to thrash the card, he said, “Come January 20, 2017; watch my WOLEXIT!”
By WOLEXIT, he seemed to be referring to his final ‘exit’ from the US, playing on Brexit, the expression referring to Britain’s historical exit from the European Union.(Punch)
