Ismaila Mansur Akolade aka Alfa Esin is a 31-year-old student of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos. He left University of Ilorin just 2 weeks to his final exams. Giving reasons for his decision in an interview with
THE NATION, he said: “Principally, my action was due to the fact that I never wanted to be a doctor.
I was initially in medical school because I had to follow my father’s bidding. He wanted me to become a doctor but when I discovered after 10 years that it was not going to work and that my professional life was going to be nastier and more horrible, I took the decision to leave and follow my dreams.
I refused to be held down by the medical certificate because I reasoned that if I should write the final examination, it might make me drift away from my dream of studying Mass Communication. Perhaps, I was the most unserious medical student UNILORIN has ever come across. I spent 10 years in the medical school, four of which was due to failure.
After the whole saga, especially when I came to study Mass Communication, I discovered that my failure was not due to an inability or mental incapacity to handle medicine; it was because I was just never interested in it. I will not want to feel the way my father felt when I left. If I put myself into his shoes, I won’t want a son to do to me what I did to my father.
However, I got the inspiration from the movie ‘Three Idiots,’ to dare and to take a seemingly difficult action. The lessons from that movie contributed 40% to my final decision. I believe strongly that if I graduate from UNILAG, become a world class journalist and achieve greatness in the profession; my father will be one of those who will celebrate with me.”……. as the 4th idiot…….