How my Journey Started.
This face here belongs to Oziel Maxwell
He is the first man that was responsible for teaching me programming, those early days when I was finding my feet university of Jos, he painstakingly showed up everyday and was our only motivation when we didn't know what we were doing.
Another person is Friday Agbo Fred, he was Maxwell's friend, be taught me OOP and personally mentored me till he left the country, those days he would walk me to his house telling me inspiring stories about what I can to with technology.
I made a choice early to sacrifice a first class for the actual practical knowledge of programming, (don't ask what I finished with) I was so drawn to the industry and made building systems and relationships my priority.
I need to mention that all this stories will not have been, if not for the leadership qualities of Mayowa Ajiboye , then just a NACCOSS president, he priotized knowledge transfer and organised these training sessions. Thank you for investing in the future of the computer science department and seeing the future.
And let me add that most of the initial the exposure I got from travels and network came through the sacrifices of Andrew Abu who was conscious enough to organise and sponsor most those pre and Post NACOSS trips with Mayowa
From 200 Level I was already working and getting paid,
In 300 Level I was director of software, a political position responsible for establishing relationships between the academia and the tech Industry,
I was re elected again for a second tenure,
From these two tenures I founded CODEFEST, a competitive program aimed at producing programmers well versed in Data Structures, Algorithm development and best practices, I am sure those students don’t know... Lol
Peter Popoola, invested greatly in our formation as programmers, he created the content and test scenarios for CODEFEST, and was always present when we came needing aide, in addition to countless tutorials organised by the Departmental fellowship, he introduced me to things like string manipulation, data structures, algorithm and algorithm efficiency, every programmer knows that this is like the core of every good software.
I co built the system the health services used, I don't know if they still do...
Then in final year, Dr Gideon Dadik showed up, and brought sanity to my approach, he helped with a better understanding of best practices, discipline and his hands on approach to Software Engineering put the icing on the cake.
I can't forget Mr Ben Benjamin, wow!
What an influence he was, he painted vivid pictures of realities we had not tasted by his stories all through school, he seemed like he was from another planet, he taught assembly language and finally supervised my development through school and finally, my research work in embedded systems where I built a smart hospital bed that recorded vital signs of patients and transmitted remotely, (startups take note lol)
By NYSC I was working remotely but within Nigeria, during MSC program I had met Maxwell again, but this time, he was rusty, hardly coding any longer, he had followed his passion as a teacher and I was more comfortable with recent technologies. I made sure I always reminded him of the value he gave me.
And this post is one for keeping.
These people, Especially Maxwell, Peter and Agbo laid the Technical foundation I have and guided me and my generation of programmers, today we are building stuff, mentoring and investing in the generations to come.
Agbo Jude
Obioma Bertrand Nwosu
Emmanuel Akogwu
Olorunfemi Meyanbe
Mabas Idi
Grace Bebeyi
We were all products of these labourers.
We are not an ungrateful generation.
We came here to say thank you.
Your legacy is here... it lives on...
And its producing fruits...
If I was to have a picture in Axia Hub
It will be a picture of you three.
Not Even Isaac Newton or Charles Babbage
Thank you.
