Professor Wole Soyinka has reacted to the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America.
Soyinka
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has said he has no intentions of renewing his green card in the United States following the swearing in of Joe Biden as the 46th President.
In an interview with Arise Television on Wednesday, Soyinka also said he has forgiven Americans for electing former President Donald Trump whom he described as a “racist” and a “xenophobe”.
The Nobel Laureate, who had in 2016 torn his American immigrant visa to shreds for voting Trump, said he would not be renewing the green card since he usually visits the United States even without it.
The playwright, who displayed pieces of his torn green card, stated that America had redeemed itself with the removal of Trump
Soyinka said, “I feel honoured to be associated with the democratic forces of the United States for correcting the unbelievable error that they committed four years ago.”
On the green card issue, he said, “I consider myself back in that community from which I dissociated myself four years ago and I am very glad to be back but I am not renewing my green card, it is not necessary. I go in and out as a visiting alien and that is good enough for me.”
The Nobel Laureate said he was very much concerned with the US elections in 2016 because the country has a huge Nigerian population, adding that America’s history would not be complete without blacks.
He said he tried to warn them about the impending danger of a Trump Presidency but his advice was ignored hence his decision to tear his green cars to shreds.
Soyinka added, “The complacency was very painful and I said if you people are so careless as to let this racist, this monster, this xenophobic aberrant, this disrespect of the female gender, this serial bankrupt, this man who called your own society a shithole country, if you are so careless as to let him become the next President, I am moving out.”
He said in a way, he was happy about the attack on the Capitol building by pro-Trump rioters. The playwright said he wanted Americans to understand how fragile democracy is.
“So, you can imagine what I have felt over the last few weeks, the siege on the Capitol. In a way it was rather heart-warming for the Americans themselves to feel that what they have been fighting for is not really a given in their society and they had to confront it in a brutal unbelievable way and they came out of it in flying colours.
“It is not over not by any means, I don’t say that for a single moment but it has been a lesson for us in this continent and we should be grateful that it did happen. I am sorry of course about the loss of life, I regret the disruption of normal life but now we are placed on the same playing level, that we are all fighting for the same virtue in human conduct, the same system we all believe in that you cannot take it for granted, not anymore and for us here in Nigeria, it has been, I hope, it was been a heart-warming occasion.”