Wole Soyinka: Nimetimiza ahadi ya kuitupa kadi yangu ya uraia, nimeondoka Marekani

Mwandishi maarufu na mshindi ya tuzo ya Nobel raia wa Nigeria Wole Soyinka, ametimiza ahadi ya kuichana kadi ya Uraia wa Marekani(green card).


Mwezi uliopta mshindi huyo wa tuzo la fasihi alisema kuwa angeirarua green card, ambayo humpa mtu kibali cha kuishi nchini Marekanai ikiwa Donald Trump angechaguliwa kuwa rais wa Marekani.

Aliliambia shirika la AFP mjini Johannesburg kuwa kutokana na Trump kushinda, basi ametekeleza alichokisema

"Tayari nishafanya, nimetoka Marekani, nimefanya kile nilisema ningekifanya, nilitupa green card yangu, nimerudi ninapostahili kuwa," alisema Soyinka.

Hata hivyo Soyinka hawashauri watu wengine kufuata mkondo huo.

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Nobel prize-winning author, Prof. Wole Soyinka, said on Thursday he had fulfilled his pledge to throw away his US residency green card and leave the country if Donald Trump won the presidential election.

Shortly before the vote, Soyinka had vowed to give up his permanent US residency over a Trump victory to protest against the Republican billionaire’s campaign promises to get tough on immigration.

AFP reported that Soyinka said this on the sidelines of an education conference at the University of Johannesburg.

“I have already done it, I have disengaged (from the United States). I have done what I said I would do,” the 82-year-old said.

He added, “I had a horror of what is to come with Trump… I threw away the (green) card, and I have relocated, and I’m back to where I have always been” – meaning his homeland Nigeria.

The prolific playwright, novelist and poet won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 and has been a regular teacher at US universities including Harvard, Cornell and Yale.

At the same time, he said he would not discourage others from applying for a green card.

“It’s useful in many ways. I wouldn’t for one single moment discourage any Nigerian or anybody from acquiring a green card… but I have had enough of it,” he said.

Soyinka, one of Africa’s most famous writers and rights activists, was jailed in 1967 for 22 months during Nigeria’s Civil War.

He was reported to have recently completed a term as scholar-in-residence at New York University’s Institute of African American Affairs.