AN OPEN LETTER TO PROFESSOR ORIOLA, DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, NIGERIA

Dear Professor Oriola,

I knew you as an undergraduate in the 1990s as someone who struggled against all odds to obtain his PhD degree and glory be to God that you’re now a full Professor of Geography.

I need to go straight to my point today for the sake of posterity, I am still my ‘radical’ self and nothing you can do about my lifestyle. This is my personal life. You’re free to award me a carry-over because I am still your student in the year 2019!

It is no longer a secret that I was expelled from the University of Ilorin, not because I was a ‘kill-and-go’ cultist, not because I was caught ‘pants down’ with ‘expo’ during examination period inside the Africa Hall by the celebrated Lucifer’s protege(Seniyi, from Sociology department) or his Ogbomoso-born soul brother, Dr Ajani Adeyemi who was brutally murdered in Ilorin by suspected cultists or assassins.

I was unlawfully expelled during the military dictatorship due to my revolutionary campus journalism and ‘radical’ activism, pure and simple. You’re free to check my records at the DSA office. Professor Olu Obafemi is still alive, even the current JAMB Registrar, Professor Oloyede witnessed my political trial.

I am not here to re-write history, many of my former university mates are on social media to argue with me on the main reasons behind my expulsion from the University of Ilorin in 1996.

I am very sure, you’ll read this open letter and say, “This Lasisi guy is a mad student, still keeping malice against me after over 20 years.”

Professor Oriola, you’re a bloody campus terrorist, killer of many dreams. No apology for my choice of words.

Professor Oriola, I have carried this burden for over 23 years and this is the best time to free my heart and ask you some thought-provoking questions :

1. Can you really explain why you tried to stop me from registering for 400 Level courses despite official pardon by the University Senate? I told you many times that I was officially pardoned to finish my Bsc Geography course but you still insisted until I produce the letter of pardon. You really stressed me to travel down to the main campus of the University of Ilorin for just a piece of paper! Wetin be your gain now??? Nonsense!!!

Remember I was so angry and I told you, “Even the Vice Chancellor already approved my pardon letter, you’re just an employee of the university. What is the problem, Sir?”

2. God really saved you in the year 2003 when I visited the Unilorin mini-campus to collect my certificate, just back from London then after my Commonwealth Secretariat assignment. I saw you climbing the stairs of our Faculty of Business and Social Sciences(BSS). I was expecting you to talk sh*t, then I punch you in the face as my own brand of sweet revenge! You also saw me but quickly dialogued with your legs to prevent an encounter with me. That’s wisdom.

3. If you look back on how you consciously maltreated and persecuted many students who passed through you, do you have any regret? I was one of your victims in the 1990s.

But right now, I say it loud and proud, “You cannot do jack sh*t for me, I swear to God. I swear with my blood,”

Somebody(Unilorin Geography graduate) recently told me how you nearly frustrated her out of the university system.

“Se won sepe fun e ni? Se won fi se e ni? Ki lo de gan?”

This lady even re-branded your name and gave you a befitting sobriquet as ‘Oriepe’, meaning “Head of curses.”

I intentionally avoided your course at my final year to prevent your programmed carry-over for ‘radical’ Geography students!

4. I am not asking you to forgive me, you’re the guilty person to beg for my forgiveness. I have nothing to fear again, I am now a grown adult with a wonderful wife, superb children, and other responsibilities. I am legally resident in the United Kingdom. Don’t let me blow my trumpet for you.

Finally, it is up to you to ignore this open letter, or tag it as another rant from a former ‘mad’ student, or write a public apology for the sake of posterity. The ball is now in your court.

We just need to bring this bitterness to a final closure because my heart is always heavy anytime I remember how you tried(and failed!) to prevent me from wearing the graduation gown of the University of Ilorin, Kwara state, Nigeria.

As Revd (Dr)Martin Luther King Jr once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

I remain myself, still a ‘radical’ personality but with unquestionable LOVE FOR HUMANITY. This is my life, not yours. Don’t swallow paracetamol tablets for another man’s headache! I no go use all mouth talk for you.

Let me end this open letter with Dele Giwa’s quote :”No evil deed shall go unpunished, any evil deed done by man to man, if not redressed and addressed now, maybe later, if not by man, then by God, for the triumph of evil over good is only temporary.”

Thanks for reading my open letter and I hope to hear from you soon.

Your former Geography student,

Mr. Ganiyu Oludare Lasisi,

alias ‘Gani Radical’.

Matric Number: 92/030356.

http://socialsciences.unilorin.edu.ng/geog-envir-mgt