At Fountain University, the former CPS to Governor Oyetola delivers a gripping account of betrayal, state power, and journalistic defiance
In the heart of Osogbo, at the Eti-Osa Lecture Theatre of Fountain University, a powerful silence fell over the room as Ismail Omipidan, former Chief Press Secretary to ex-Osun State Governor Gboyega Oyetola, took the stage to present his new book, Persona Non Grata.
This wasn’t just another book reading. It was a raw confession, a political autopsy, and a journalist’s vow to never bow to intimidation.
“Most of the events in this book are not hearsay,” Omipidan began. “They happened. I lived them.”
Among the most searing moments he shared was the day his political loyalty broke.
“I gave up on Rauf Aregbesola in 2021,” he revealed, referencing the All Progressives Congress (APC) membership revalidation exercise. “He asked us to wait 48 hours. We waited. The hours passed, the days passed, the moment never came.”
For a man who had served closely within the corridors of power, Omipidan’s testimony peeled back the curtain on a government often at war with dissent, even from within.
He recalled how his reporting, particularly on a governor’s rumored health issues, triggered state-backed intimidation.
“I wrote that the governor had cancer not based on gossip, but from an interview where he himself admitted seeing doctors regularly while abroad,” Omipidan said. “Still, I faced threats. But those threats only energized me to sharpen my approach never to retreat.”
His words were not just reflections, but indictments.
“If you were under the Babangida regime, would you still be this fearless?” one of the moderators asked.
“From my experience,” Omipidan replied, “there are governors today who are more brutal than the military. And those around them? They act even worse.”
The audience stirred when he described one of the most trying nights of his career.
“I had just brought my wife home from the hospital. That same evening, I was summoned by the DSS. I sat in their office for hours. No one said a word to me.”
Through arrests and constant surveillance, Omipidan clung tightly to one principle: truth must not be negotiated.
“Three and a half years as Chief Press Secretary, and I never apologized for a single story. Because I verified everything. No regrets.”
As Persona Non Grata makes its entry into the public sphere, Omipidan’s voice joins a growing chorus of Nigerian journalists who have chosen the hard road: one where truth-telling is not a strategy, but a calling one paid for with isolation, threats, and scars.
And yet, the message remains unwavering: to hate injustice is to speak, even when silence is safest.
