Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has said that he would not honour an invitation by the United States Consulate in Nigeria to a visa re-interview, which it had scheduled for Thursday, 11 September.
Reacting to the recent invitation the US Consulate sent to Nigerians with B1/B2 visas, asking them to go to the American Consulate for what it calls a visa re-interview, Soyinka, told TheNEWS that he was taken aback by the invite, said he found the development strange and bizarre.
The distinguished writer, who is one of many Nigerians invited to that interview, said he had thought the information was fake and a fraudulent move by scammers bent on duping unsuspecting Nigerians.
‘I would like to begin by stressing the fact that, for me, this is not a personal issue. I have no idea how you got to know. By the way, I also have received the letter, which at first I thought was a fake. I thought it was these scammers who sort of prey on those eager to get visas elsewhere, with promise to deliver visas for a certain amount guaranteed. I thought they just picked up my name among others because they knew there was a list of those who have been invited.
‘So, at the beginning, I thought it was advance fee fraud because I had never received that kind of letter from that or any other embassy. I thought that maybe AI has been generating generic letters. It was very strange. So, by the time I came to terms with the fact that this letter is genuine, my mind just went to my relationship with individual ambassadors, Consul-Generals and Cultural Attachés. As you know, it’s always been a courteous relationship’, Soyinka noted.
He also said that he has more important things to do than chase visas for places he does not want to go to and where he is not wanted. ‘So the question of going to such an interview is totally out of consideration’, he maintained.
Soyinka specifically frowned at the date, 9/11, the American Consulate had chosen for the proposed interview, a day which, according to him, is very critical for the United States, saying he is a bit superstitious not just for that country, but for the rest of the world, given what that date signifies.
He affirmed that that day should be regarded as one of national mourning, for deep, sober reflection, rather than for the perpetuation of ignoble motives such as an invitation for visa reinterview.
‘In addition, I happen to be a little bit superstitious of being given a significant date, not just for the United States but the rest of the world. I’m talking about 9/11. This is a day which I have always considered very critical for the United States especially. To me, 9/11 should be regarded as a day of national mourning, of atonement by the Consulate of the United States.
‘They should close down offices on that day, not to keep inviting people to come and have their visas taken away. It should be a day of reflection, of serious, deep thinking in consideration of so many things. I think on that day, United States should shut down completely, universally. If they don’t shut down, at least I would shut down my relationship with them on that day. Because I’m very superstitious. I’m not going anywhere near there on 9/11. I will be airborne somewhere’, Soyinka maintained.
However, he also said even though he considers invitations by embassies to be invitations from governments, it depends on which kind of government that is sending out such invitations.
He said that the United States, according to him, has a “white Idi Amin” at the helm of affairs. Soyinka said he is wary of such invitation because of his safety.
He further said: ‘Are we looking in the case of the United States, at the white Idi Amin, for instance? If you look very closely at the conduct, the behaviour, the mentality of the present incumbent president, you find out there are Idi Amins of different colours. And if Idi Amin says I should come to his embassy, I would think twice before going because I don’t know what is waiting for me on the other side of the door.
‘So I’m afraid, I would have to, as the Americans say, take a rain check of this invitation and certainly I’m not going there on 9/11. No way. Maybe individuals, small, minuscule action like this, here and there, collectively, institutionally and so on may enable the American people embark on this process of deep introspection, which is really to review their position with the rest of the world and how the world looks at them especially at this critical period of world affairs’.
Soyinka went further to say that perhaps what the United States needs at this time is an exorcist.
‘So that’s all I want to say on that subject at this time. But there is a lot more to say in the future. We can now sit down objectively, analytically and ask what on earth has happened or is happening to the United States of America; perhaps in various conferences of writers, philosophers and of course psychologists. Because maybe what the United States needs right now is an exorcist. It could be. We never can tell. But I’m a bit superstitious. I’m not going there on 9/11’, he maintained.
Soyinka, however, said that he was happy that the invitation for visa reinterview happened ‘because it enabled us to examine so many facets of relationships between travellers from one country and another. And the possibility that somebody who’s made a home, made a living, a legitimate living elsewhere, obeys the laws and so on, wakes up someday and gets to the airport and then be told “you cannot rejoin your existence in another country”. It must be a horrible thing.
‘People like me are in a privileged position in the sense that we are nomadic anyway. But those who actually built homes there and suddenly to be told you cannot continue living there, I find it horrifying, inhuman and dehumanising’.
