Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has declared that the United State has redeemed itself by rejecting Mr. Donald Trump at the presidential poll.
Speaking last night on ARISE NEWS Channels, a sister broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, Soyinka argued that with the removal of Trump and successful inauguration of President Joe Biden, the United States has effectively corrected the mistakes made four years ago.
The playwright disclosed that he has forgiven Americans for electing Trump whom he described as a “racist” and a “xenophobe”.
Soyinka had in 2016 torn his American Immigrant Visa in protest against Trump’s victory.
He, however, told ARISE NEWS Channels that he would not be renewing the green card since he does not require it to visit the United States.
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,” Soyinka disclosed
He noted that his interest in the US elections in 2016 was the huge Nigerian population in the US, adding that America’s history would not be complete without blacks.
He said he warned Americans about the impending danger of a Trump Presidency but his advice was ignored hence his decision to tear his green cars to shreds.
“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 the attack on the Capitol building by pro-Trump rioters would make Americans to understand the fragile nature of democracy
“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.”
