SOMETHING AMAZING IS HAPPENING IN THE NORTHERN PART OF NIGERIA

nHub fellows on #JosTechOnWheels

First I'd like to apologize to my blog readers. A lot of you would probably be tired of my inconsistency. I apologize for that. 

Something amazing is happening in the northern part of Nigeria and i consider myself blessed to be part of it. I can't believe it's already a month since i left Lagos for Jos. On the 7th of April 2017, I clicked on a sponsored post on Techpoint.ng. The article was titled "Become a world class developer. Apply for the nHub fellowship programme 2017".

According to the article on Techpoint, nHub was taking a bold step to blaze a trail in Northern Nigeria by training software developers with global tools for international relevance in 10 months. Fresh from completing a course in digital marketing, I made up my mind that this was definitely the next step i needed to take in my quest to helping businesses and people grow. 

This article isn't about me though, this article is about my experience in Jos after one month of deep thinking, algorithm, flowgorithm, data structures, Version Control systems (Git), Agility in context of software engineering, C++, and databases (Mysql). It's been a very eventful month, one which i have been able to just average 108 hours of sleep out of a possibly 217 hours. But it's been totally worth it.

Mr Daser David, a software engineer with over 14 years experience in software development, is the founder and CEO of nHub Nigeria, the first Technological Hub in Northern Nigerian and arguably the finest in West Africa. Mr Daser, head of the team behind the first hackathon  in northern Nigeria (HackJos) has succeeded in creating a tech ecosystem in Jos. This time around, he's brought together 30 young Nigerians from different parts of the country on a journey to becoming world class developers in 10 months. I am currently one of the fellows and after a month, I am 100% sure leaving Lagos state for Jos was the best decision for me at this particular stage in my life. 

I arrived at the Hub on Saturday 3rd June 2016 at around 6pm in the evening and I was welcomed by a group of young Techies whom i later found out to be software developers. Mr Daser had spent time teaching most of them how to code and now he wants to reach out to more people via the fellowship program and being among the first is something I am definitely going to be proud of for the rest of my life. 

It was a great experience right from the welcome dinner they organized for us. I spent the evening talking to a Poet and Photographer called Emmanuel and was pretty impressed about how well he knew the tech industry in Nigeria. The next day was Monday and Mr Daser introduced us to a young software and mechanical engineer called Ibrahim Timothy Onogu and ever since then, my life has never remained the same. Our instructor Mr Timothy is arguably one of the smartest person I have ever met. He lives and breaths software development and has been responsible for welcoming us into our journey of becoming world class developers and I am very happy he was picked for that particular role. 

One month later, well i that know an algorithm is a set of well defined steps for performing a task or solving problems. I know what that version control systems record changes to a file or set of files over time so we can recall specific versions later. I know that a high level language is a language that is easily understood by programmers. I know that intermediate code is a form of compiled code that is specifically produced for a target computer. I know that special purpose language are languages designed for specific tasks e.g AI or C for writing OS. I know that a data structure is a specialized format for organizing and storing data, I know arrays are linear, contiguous and cache friendly. I know that singly linked lists are sparse, a bit slow to traverse and have no random access. I know that every programming language must have a main function, and that a declaration can be used for variables, constants, functions, enumerations and classes. I know that microprocessors are highly programmable and that's what makes them different, I know that the north-bridge in a computer serves as a memory controller. 

I also know how to; write a program that determines if a number is prime or not, a program that prints out odds numbers only out of a given range, a C++ program that finds the roots of quadratic equations, a program that takes two integers and determines if the integers are part of a fibonacci sequence, etc (all these could be basic stuffs for a seasoned software engineer but a month ago, I had no idea what VCS were or even how to print "Hello World" in a C++ program). And putting into consideration that we did deep thinking for a couple of days before we even wrote any code, I must say i am pretty excited about how the next 9 months would be like.  

I have also visited the Wild Life park in Jos, the House of Recab for orphans and Internally displaced persons, the SoS Children's village. We did all these on a special trip theme #JosTechOnWheels that was organised by nHub for fellows and developers. I had a great time taking pictures and posting them on social media on that particular day.

I am also very excited about the opportunities available to us at the hub, I have been appointed as a freelance marketer for nHub Nigeria, I am also co-managing the social media accounts for the hub, I know these responsibilities would only increase as I have recognized the role i have to play in making Jos the best destination for techies in Africa. I spent Tuesday(July 4th) talking to a Media Entrepreneur called Kenneth and we are currently looking at organizing a meet up for entrepreneurs like us in Jos and neighboring northern states where we get to meet and discuss how we can use tech to improve the life of Africans and the world in general.  The fact that a colleague, Fwangnum also recently received seed funding from nHub for his startup Terminus.ng adds to the fact that Jos is definitely the place to be for everyone that is passionate about using tech to contribute to the growth and development in Africa. 

Today is #DebugThursday at the hub and I am currently going back to debugging a program I am working on. More information about my time in Jos and our journey to becoming world-class developers in the cold city of Jos in subsequent posts. 



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