See the Final Year Medical Student Who Dumped Medicine For Mass Comm After 10 Years in Medical School

After spending 10 years in the University of Ilorin studying Medicine, he left school just 2 weeks to his final exams and enrolled in University of Lagos to study Mass Communication.

31-year old Ismaila Mansur Akolade a.k.a Alfa Esin is a 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 ‘The 3 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.”