My year in review may be coming in late, but 2025 can’t go undocumented in words.

Last year was an oxymoron year, having the best things and worst things happen to me in one year, but as I look back, I end the year happy.

The first six months start with me at home in Maiduguri on my SIWES, then the next six at school. Here it goes.

JANUARY starts with decisions. I decide I’ll be consistent throughout the year, on LinkedIn, running, in everything I do; I say I may have ninety-nine problems but consistency won’t be one, I continue running every Saturday. I later post for forty plus weeks on LinkedIn. I plan to have a startup year, I don’t, just an idea. I help a few friends with their LinkedIn, I start my SIWES at Co-dev, a lovely company; I make my first presentation at the company and they love it, they love me. I go out with an office colleague for an outreach at a local community and it goes well. January is good, my life seems perfect. Then I get broken up with by my girlfriend, I go to work the next day and life continues. I set up an X Space series for BUCC and it goes really well. I’m part of the team that organizes the first Creative Wednesday, an event for creatives to hang out at the office. I create a few contents for my TikTok, then I stop.

FEBRUARY hits hard. I start to feel the heartbreak, maybe because it is the month of love and everything reminds me. I receive my Crowdsource swag all the way from Lagos and I love it, thank you Google Crowdsource, thank you Laju. I meet this lady on LinkedIn who happens to be one of the best people I meet all year. I attend a career seminar, meet new people, think of taking the event to my school, it doesn’t work out, my email is aired. Valentine’s Day is close and my Valentine website template gets more uses; someone uses it for his wife and it touches me, I’m happy I get to contribute to their lovely marriage, I don’t get to use my own Valentine template though. I represent my company at an inaugural book club, we read Chike and the River. I discover John Michael Howell’s music and I play his songs till the year ends. Valentine’s Day arrives and I get myself a cake with “you sef don try” because I actually have tried, a lot. I write my first Medium post of the year, I’VE BEEN DOING A LOT OF LEARNING RECENTLY. I’m part of the team in my company that organizes the first Tech Meet-Up; I plan the event, lead a discussion, they say I do well and the event is a success. I attend TEDx BulumkutuED, notice the “ED” at the end, it was simply not good. I meet friends, take pictures. My results are released and I’m shocked, they’re better than I expected. My family has a photoshoot and I take pictures I use across my socials throughout the year. I attend a big meeting representing my company, meet top officials in government and give a short presentation on the new National Digital Economy Bill.

MARCH is me reaching out to schools for what is now TechStudents; the schools are closing for the session and ask me to come back next term, it hurts but now I have more time to prepare. Election season in my school begins and I’m running for President for my faculty, the Babcock University Computer Club (BUCC). March 4th, I can’t forget that day; I almost cry, my breath is heavy, I’m angry and sad and it has to do with the election. I write my manifesto, I campaign. I have another photoshoot for my brother’s matriculation. I lose someone I respect so much, the same day my campaign starts. I learn to make Snapchat filters and use them for my election, one of the best things I learn all year. March ends with major character development for me.

APRIL continues with the election. I build a campaign bot called SojiBot; it helps my campaign, I learn about RAG chatbots, a win-win for me. I make one of the biggest decisions of the year and I win my election with a close gap, I’m happy and relieved of stress. I participate in the AI for Social Good Hackathon with my team, we don’t win, but end up in the top five. It’s a fantastic experience; we build NutriFit, an AI-powered health and fitness solution. I visit the UNDP and wow. I’m invited to speak at a virtual seminar and it goes well. GDG Maiduguri organizes Build with AI and I’m part of the organizing team; I learn how to use a camera better and take pictures for the event. I write my first technical article of the year. It’s my school’s student body election and my friends are running; I support them, build a PWA and make Snapchat filters, they win. April ends with the North East Creativity and Innovation Summit, my company hosts it and I’m part of the planning team, the event is a major success.

MAY has so much fun. I hang out with friends and make TikToks. I start talking to a lady who later becomes a good friend. I get invited to speak as a panelist at a virtual event from Egypt, later I lead a session and then hold a personal session to teach about RAG chatbots, it goes really well and I’m grateful. I participate as a facilitator for a women empowerment AI hackathon and pitch a RAG bot aligned with the theme, people love it and companies want me. I get a one-month contract job and I love what they’re doing, awesome team and product. I start reaching out again for TechStudents since secondary schools are in session; I go to six schools multiple times and only two accept. I visit the first school, speak at their assembly and the students look inspired, the TechStudents students are selected. I visit the second school, my alma mater, speak at their assembly, and a friend says I do better. This friend follows me to both schools and helps me with the sessions, thank you, Seyi. TechStudents officially begins, the children are smart and there are two more sessions to go.

JUNE is a lot. My SIWES ends this month. I join Facebook to push TechStudents, I end up posting a few times. I get featured on a podcast. I build the Threadimage API. I also get inaugurated as President. Burnout creeps in but I have a lot to do and I do them regardless. The last two sessions of TechStudents hold and I’m emotional on the last day, it’s the most fulfilling moment of my life at the time. Parents show up for their children to take pictures after the session and it is beautiful. TechStudents later gets a news feature and it shows it’s a wonderful initiative. My company wraps up a year-long project and it’s beautiful, my last event with the company. I speak at another virtual event on studying with AI and they love it, I realize I’m actually good at this speaking thing. I wrap up the management system I’ve been building for the company and present it, they’re in awe, it’s beautiful. I wrap up my SIWES and leave for Lagos. I’m going to school. I attend CCI Ikeja before going and I love the church, I want it to be my church. I spend a lot of money on food, mostly Chowdeck, in Lagos before getting to school.

JULY is resumption, post SIWES. They say it’s the easiest semester, LOL, one of the hardest for me. I have new roommates and they’re wonderful, thank God. President work starts hitting. Sometimes I feel the weight of the 3000+ students. I have a job in school and it’s hard, very hard. The heartbreak I mentioned in January becomes a story again because we are physically in the same environment, I hate it. I apply for a grant for TechStudents through an award and I find out about it late, the application closes the next day. I plan to shoot the video with my phone but meet a videographer friend who escalates everything; we shoot and he edits a high-quality video in just three hours in his room, thank you Rahmon. I move to the second round but don’t make it forward. It was worth a try, just like other rejections I get all year. I barb skin, why, because I can. Graduation comes and my seniors graduate, I miss them. July is mostly school activities.

AUGUST begins with my brother graduating from secondary school. I can’t attend, nice one school. BUCC collaborates with NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI) and it’s a success, a lot of background stress behind it but we survive. We get another collaboration. I become a Postman Student Expert. I have an idea and give it to the best guy who expands it and brings it to life as POST SIWES Chill Sunday; BUCC serves as sponsor, everyone loves it. I later find out someone met his girlfriend there. I write exams. BUCC announces that we’re having NVIDIA delegations from the US for the first time in a Nigerian university and people say the administration is working 10x, we thank God. I go for approvals for the event even while writing exams, crazy. The semester ends. I don’t go home, it’s a two-week break.

SEPTEMBER is tiring. I pursue approvals for our NVIDIA event and it’s a success, my dean, lecturers, students, NVIDIA delegations, and everyone say we did well. I have a lot of meetings and orientations as a student leader in school this month. I write my SIWES report. I become less active in some communities because BUCC is my priority, I don’t have time. I have a crush. I’ve known her for a while; I tell her I like her. She becomes one of the best parts of the semester. I run my second school “marathon”, in quotes because it wasn’t 42 kilometers. I finish this time; I don’t care about my position. We hold our second DLI workshop.

OCTOBER has me defending my SIWES; I impress my assessor. I initiate Project SIWES, not done yet, we’re trying to get SIWES placements for 300-level students. I fall sick. I stop running. I don’t run till the year ends. I visit the school hospital more times than I want to mention. I play Changes by Charlie Puth on repeat; my roommates are angry. I pitch a startup idea at Hackaholics Babcock in my school, we don’t make top three but I learn. We organize Course Rep Day and it’s fantastic. Freshers resume. I juggle classes with helping them at the stadium. I feel burnt out, I try to write and I never finish.

NOVEMBER starts with optimism because it’s my birth month. I plan to attend DevFest Lagos, I get tickets. later don’t go because I can’t conclude transport. I’m burnt out and I dread my way through the month. I write “In less than 24 hours, I clock 20”. I clock 20, I feel old. I start thinking it’s time to settle down; I’m joking. My birthday is beautiful. I receive the most intentional gift yet. I have my project proposal defense/mini defense. I’m told to redo chapters 1 and 2 two days before, scary. My team participates in the Babcock Innovation Challenge (BIC); we don’t make top ten, we’re coming back strong. BUCC launches its website and I’m super proud of the dev team. The CS 25th anniversary begins and it’s a lot, I love everything from the rally to the dinner and I give a speech at the dinner. I attend my last Feast of Light in Babcock and join the graduating class to dance, peak stuff. The BIC finale holds and BUCC is a collaborator; I meet a former BUCC president and realize my post is bigger than I thought. The event is good and I end November tired.

DECEMBER comes and I’m choked with wrapped from so many apps. I have exams. I pray they go well. I have a result issue and move around to get it fixed, they say I should let it go and I do, but I’m not happy. I hang out more with the lady from September. We do a paint in the dark, an alternative for sip and paint when your school doesn’t bring light. I have a lot of video calls with her this month. I finally leave school after six months. I don’t go home, I stay in Lagos and I love Lagos. I dye my hair brown, I don’t dye white as my initial idea because white is too expensive for a calculated risk, I love the dyed hair and people say it fits me, my parents don’t support it. The year ends with me writing end-of-year emails. I cross over for the first time alone in the house. I end the year happy.

Amidst all of it, there were many lows and just as many highs. I applied for a lot of things this year, more than I can recall. Not just applications, but DMs and emails too. There were rejections, silence and the new kind I discovered this year, realizing you didn’t get it when you see a random stranger post about it.

I shot my shot a lot. I didn’t always get it, but it was worth trying. One of those was applying for TechStudents to be featured on the BBC. These are proofs that I tried. Win or lose, I know I did so much.

Sometimes I look back and just say wow, did I really do all these things. I know for sure it was God carrying me through the year. I’m more grateful than ever. Grateful for the people in my life, grateful for supportive parents, and grateful for great pictures.

Above all, thank You God for keeping things running smoothly.

For 2026, I’m going in with almost the same goals I had last year, expanding on them. I already feel overwhelmed by the work ahead, but it’ll be done, it has to be done, with God.

I’ve come to learn that I can just do things, so Soji does more things this year.

This was supposed to be I CLOCK 20 IN 3 DAYS, but here we are, my birthday is tomorrow.

Without a doubt, there’s been some changes since my 19th birthday. I just had to add “there’s been some changes” from Charlie Puth’s new song Changes. #freead

To be frank, not some changes, a whole lot of changes. So many CHARACTER DEVELOPMENTS. Not all caused by heartbreak, just one.

Before I share a few expectations for my twenties, I’ll be reflecting a little on the past 19 years, and on my 19th year even more.
I love being asked questions about my journey. Yes, you can invite me for interviews.
So, this will be conversational-like, just me asking myself questions.

Let’s begin.

What was it like growing up?

Growing up, I wasn’t the regular boy. I didn’t watch football, didn’t ride a bicycle (I still don’t know how to ride one), loved kids’ romance movies and cartoons. I used to watch a lot of Barbie, High School Musical, etc. Never really been a fan of all the action stuff.

Like every child good at maths, I wanted to be an engineer. For me, I wanted to be an inventor, which I thought was an occupation back then. Mark Zuckerberg was my role model back then, and I’d always said I would start my own company by 19, just like Mark with Facebook.
Ehm, I haven’t. Can I in a day? Regardless, I’ve been close to building my own company, more like a startup right now. Not rushing it, but I can say I’m close.

With good maths skills as a child, I always felt special. But school shows you that you are special in ways you didn’t expect.
I got bullied from Primary 1 till JSS 3. Not very frequent, but there were people I was afraid to be in the same class with.
I had really low self-esteem from around Primary 1 to 4. My birthmark was an insecurity for a while. I was called “Yaro ba gashi” in Hausa, meaning “boy without hair.”

As of Primary 1, I wasn’t the finest, strongest, or the “regular boy” who could play ball, run fast, or do a flip. So, a lot, actually none, of the girls I liked ever liked me back. I know, sad. And that’s when I found out that if I could be a little serious, I could be the best in my set. Girls like smart guys, right?

Skip to after being first position, I did get attention, a lot, but still, my crush didn’t like me, and that was where all my love-life crisis started. Aisha, nice one.

By Primary 5, my self-esteem got better. Almost everybody in school knew me at the time, a lot of people talked to me, but my crush this time didn’t like me again.

Disclaimer: my crush not liking me back is a series of consistent happenings.

At this time, my self-esteem had gone all the way high to being proud. It was bad, but looking at it now, I’ll give myself grace because when they bullied me, I would bring up that I was smarter than them.

What about your secondary school?

Secondary school was another story. Seen as one of the smartest, a lot of people knew me. This time, a few of my crushes liked me back. I had a bit of game.
This was where I learnt everything learnable, watched and played football, learnt to have game, and made quite a lot of mistakes. My excuse now is, I was young and dumb. Yes, I was. Don’t come for me.

Here’s where the plot twist happens. I had a turning point in SS 3. I questioned what I wanted in after graduation. I got humbled with JAMB mock, I had nightmares. Did better in JAMB though. I looked back from all the mini fame, being a local champion, and questioned if I really wanted all of that all along. What if I was just a quiet boy in class?

Okayy, tell me about uni life.

I got to university with a humbled mind. Didn’t want anyone knowing me. Wanted to be that quiet boy on his own, but as I said in my second-year experience in university, I did the complete opposite.

Getting into university, so many things I predicted (or overthought) happened. Growing up in the North and then coming to the South definitely meant a different mentality. A lot of shocks. I was basically weird. Again, my crushes didn’t like me back. This girl once told me, “The fact you think it will work.” You can laugh. I know, very sad love life.

So, what happened that I did the opposite? I met someone who gave me a mindset shift. I’ve said this and mentioned the person several times. I was impressed by their achievements but more impressed by how relatable they were in person and in writing. He could literally say he was losing his mind and say it as it is, and that was it for me. Since then, it’s been one leadership role after another.

Over the past few years, I’ve been blessed to meet so many amazing people who have been a part of my journey. I love meeting people. You always learn a thing or two from everyone.

You mentioned doing the complete opposite. What do you mean?

I jumped at every reasonable opportunity. Done so many things afraid, applied with imposter syndrome, done things shaking. I don’t even know what my comfort zone looks like anymore.

Imposter syndrome is normal for everyone, I guess. How’s imposter syndrome been treating you?

This year, I’ve been defined a lot by people, who I am or who I’m supposed to be. I know my socials, especially LinkedIn, may show that I’ve got things together. Even though I’ve written there that I don’t.

You know what? Y’all should add me on Snapchat and start to see me me.

A lot of people, when I ask their impression of me, say I’m a nerd, smart guy, and start to mention scary words like inspire and so on. Not saying these are not valid or that I don’t appreciate them, but there’s this expectation weighing on me, questioning if this is really me.

Days when you ask, “Is this the Soji they talk about?” As that gets to me, my personal expectations hurt even more because I expect so much from myself, which has been draining. And while imposter syndrome kills, I’d say my fear of failure has just never let me settle for bare minimum.

I call myself Dammy, and people call me Soji. And when things get tough, mostly around 1am to 4am, when it’s just me awake facing my laptop, I question and ask, “Dammy, would Soji be doing this now?” I know, messed up stuff, referring to myself in third person. But that worked for a while.

Let’s switch things up. Tell me about your love life.

My love life? Right now?

Right now, I can’t say anything. But for a while, it hasn’t been looking good. Maybe the 19 theory is actually real. More signs to focus on my career, yes? I have a question for almost everything, and for my love life, it’s “Where do I keep meeting these girls?” ’cause omo.

It’s way better than secondary school and 100-level anyway. I have people who like me, I think. I have better game now, smarter, confident and better with my words.
In general, I feel the girls I’ve liked have contributed to my character development and growth.

This 20, will I try anything? We’ll find out. Actually, not we, you won’t be updated.

Did you have any other character development?

A major one this year for me was elections. Who knew a month could teach you so many things at once and give you unimaginable levels of anxiety and crash-outs.

Honestly, if I had a fifth year, I wouldn’t think of going for an election. For someone who has been a part of three and won all three, you know that’s a little shocking.

I was tested in so many ways, and it reaffirmed why I was running for the post. Did I really not care what people said about me? What are friendships? When you realize your heartfelt service was nothing to others.

Running for election to be President of my faculty, the second largest student body in Babcock University, was something I never thought I’d do when entering university.

It was never about power for me because I knew the stress I went through as PRO. I had served BUCC for a while, and it was the love to be better.

How has this year been so far for you?

I’ve gotten so many Ls this year. Definitely gotten Ws, but omo, the Ls have been a lot. I just chest it and move to the next opportunity. And to be honest, I’ve cried more times than I can admit. It’s been weeks of burnout, questioning everything.

I’m not here to talk about what I’ve achieved, you can read that on LinkedIn or wherever. I’m just very grateful to God for everything achieved through my life at 19. Sometimes I sit back, reflect, and ask, “Was that really me? We did that?”

God has been good. I’m grateful for my mum. I’m grateful for family. Everyone who has checked up, stood by me, and helped in ways I’m not even aware of. I’m grateful for friends. I’m grateful for the people I’ve met. I’m grateful for good music and Charlie Puth. I’m grateful that I touched way more money than I expected. I’m grateful I took LinkedIn more seriously. I’m grateful I learnt to make Snapchat filters. I’m grateful for speaking at a few events (virtual), and hopefully there’s more to come. I’m grateful for founding TechStudents. I’m grateful for people who mentioned my name in rooms I couldn’t enter myself. I’m grateful for love.

I saw somewhere that “sometimes we’re so focused on our future that we don’t realize we’re in the middle of what we used to pray for.”

What have you learnt in your 19th year?

Reflecting on my 19th year, I didn’t have specific goals, just like I haven’t for a while now. My focus was simply to grab every opportunity I could, not do anything stupid, and break my comfort zone like I’ve never done before.

I have come to realize life is for living and being happy (what do I know about life sha). I never cared much about what people said, but it still hit once in a while.

I think I heard or read this somewhere, that if a lot of things won’t matter after you die, why not be happy while you can?

I genuinely don’t believe in “cringe” or “doing too much” because the definitions are subjective.

For my 20th

I’m not caring at all. Whatever makes me happy, I’m doing it. Using my free will to the fullest.

Cringe? Yes, I am, and I don’t care. Doing too much? Yupp.

19 was evidence I tried. Win or lose, I know I did so much.

So, 20.
Whatever makes me happy.

With all my heart,
Soji

So, let’s re-title this: Realities of Learning as an Unmotivated and Tired Student and Software Engineer.

As someone who uses LinkedIn a lot, I can tell you there are so many posts with the usual “Don’t stop learning,” “Pick up that laptop and start now,” “Stop procrastinating, start now.” In as much as they’re all right, it’s easier said than done.

“Pick up that laptop and start now.” Okay, I’ve been facing that laptop, and nothing is entering. I’ve watched that tutorial twice now. I guess just picking up the laptop and starting didn’t work.

Feeling unmotivated while learning is something new I’m experiencing for the first time. I’ve always been eager to learn, and suddenly, I’m not. After days of watching motivation videos and listening to songs, including “Can I Get A Chee Hoo?” from Moana 2 and reading tweets on why I should lock in, nothing seemed to work.

But here I am with my goals, and they’re not going to achieve themselves (I wish they could). I summoned an insane amount of discipline and started, but the progress wasn’t what I wanted. And remember, on top of all this, I have a job.

I had to sit down with myself and figure out exactly what was going on. I knew I was cooked when I started reminding myself how I once finished a YouTube tutorial playlist, a course, and wrote a certification exam in a week. I had to use that as reassurance.

After sitting with myself and probably playing a lot of Charlie Puth, I think I understood the PROBLEMS, yes, plural. The major thing I could pick out was a recent experience, and I could link a little to that, but that wasn’t all.

I realized I have a fear of failure — more like a fear of not understanding. I was so afraid of not getting the things I was learning. Will I ever be a pro? I had to remind myself that this is how it has always been. In Junior secondary school, I thought I’d never understand Further Maths because of how seniors talked about it. But later in Senior Secondary, I was clearing As. I wasn’t a pro at first, I actually struggled but it became easier.

Another problem? Learning too many things at once. You don’t want to see how many Chrome tabs I have open because of all the things I want to learn. It was unrealistic, but there I was, thinking I was Superman, trying to learn them all at once. I’ve now drafted a learning calendar till the end of the year. I’m being realistic now.

Rushing the process. Again, me thinking I was a superhero but this time, I thought I was Flash, trying to learn everything as soon as possible. Unrealistic expectations, again! Thank God for the learning calendar.

One funny thing that recently happened — I built a To-Do app, and at first, I was excited. Then I was like, ah, agba dev like me. I was trying to skip the “we all start from somewhere” phase. The newbie stage. Like, no, I know stuff already. I am a Software Engineer (cries in “everyone becomes a beginner at some point”). Accepting that I was a beginner and that I sucked at first was hard, but it was the only way to make learning easier.

I also stopped deceiving myself with those 3–4 hour tutorials. They’re just not for me. Y’all that watch FreeCodeCamp tutorials, I salute you! I’ve permanently sticked to tutorial playlists, especially from Net Ninja. He has great tutorials!

Accepting these problems was hard, but it was necessary. Regardless, discipline still plays a big part, and I’ll keep going, whether I get my motivation back or not. But until then, I’m doing this the hard way. It’s me vs. my goals.

It’s not easy and definitely not a good place to be in, but if you’ve found yourself here, I hope what helped me can help you too. Take time to understand yourself, but find a way to keep learning even if it’s just a little.

So, yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of learning recently and I’ll continue. Hopefully, I get to share progress on what I’ve learnt and the projects I build.

I literally JUMPED out of my comfort zone during my second year (200-level). I had to do something different, and something different I did.

After my first year (100-level), I had this zeal to give back to the communities I love and that had helped me. These communities were Google Developers Student Clubs Babcock (GDSC Babcock) and my faculty club, Babcock University Computer Club (BUCC).

My core inspiration came from my GDSC Lead and BUCC President, Mileke when I was in 100-level. I entered 200-level saying I wanted to make an impact and attract the influence he had.

Starting as a BUCC Senator

I was skeptical about running at first, but I won the by-election to become the 200-level Software Engineering Senator. Starting as a Senator, I’m grateful for my Senate President, who ensured the Senate House stayed engaged.

One of the most stressful times as a Senator was during TechXplore. I had a mid-semester exam, a few classes, and presentations, but I still had to be present as a Senator. Regardless, it was the best week that semester.

As Senator, I was glad that my department had the highest turnout at events, led engagement posts in the Senate House and conducted the icebreaker session during our Alumni Connect event.

Serving as a Senator, I saw the impact we could make as a club, and I’m glad to have been part of the administration and the amazing things BUCC achieved.

Crowdsource Team Lead

When the application for team leads came out for my GDSC, I initially planned to apply as the mobile team lead because I was doing mobile development with Kotlin at the time. But seeing others, I realized I was just a beginner.

So, I came across Crowdsource. I did my research, contributed on the app, and found myself loving it. It provided a clear way for me to impact people while they had fun. I got excited about Crowdsource, applied, and was selected as the Crowdsource Team Lead. From there, I became a Google Crowdsource Influencer.

I started the Crowdsource Learning Community Program, led over 70 members, and completed the CLC program for the first time at Babcock. It was a challenge but one I’m glad I took on and tackled.

I’m grateful I had the opportunity to serve alongside other team leads and under my GDSC Lead, Lillian Onofiok.

My Tech Journey

Imposter syndrome is real oo!

There’s been a lot of hype about me being an ‘agba dev’. As much as I appreciate it, I don’t really feel like I’m doing anything out of the ordinary. I enjoy building and sharing, and I try my best to do so.

For the projects I worked on, Threadimge was one which I wrote about here, along with Digitalizing Cafeteria (a school project), a Valentine website template, and other small projects. I got the opportunity to pick up additional skills.

Mehn! It hasn’t been easy. I’ve spent so much time learning things that could have been avoided if I had a roadmap from the start of my tech journey. The learning just never ends.

I will probably get a farm soon.

For someone who wanted a low-key life at university, I DID THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE. I found myself becoming one of the most popular people in my faculty. I’m still shocked at how I went from being a regular 100-level student to holding so many leadership positions.

I remember after my 100-level dinner, I told myself I was going to win one of those award plaques before graduating for being the best dev — and I did, but for being influential, lol.

In my 200 level, I did the following:

• Served as a Senator in the Babcock University Computer Club (BUCC)
• Led the Crowdsource Learning Community (CLC) with 70+ members as the Crowdsource Team Lead at GDSC Babcock
• Became a Google Crowdsource Influencer
• Spoke about Open Source at a webinar hosted by She Code Africa Babcock, which was my first webinar as a speaker
• Contributed as a Member of the Social Committee, BUCC
• Served as the Assistant Crunch Team Lead, BUCC
• Won the Most Influential Male award (200-level), BUCC
• Nominated for the Most Social Male award (200-level), BUCC
• Pioneered as Lead of the Shadow Developers Community
• Tutored 100-level students as a Programming Tutor at Catalyst Tutorial where I and fellow student tutors taught C and C++
• Elected as Director of Public Relations for BUCC
• Built projects like Threadimage, Valentine website template, and Digitalizing Cafeteria
• Wrote quite a number of blog posts such as “The Simple Project I Built”, “A Year Ago Today, I Joined GitHub”, and “Threadimage: My First Open Source Project”

In every leadership role, I put in my best effort because my mum always says, “Whatever is worth doing should be done well”, so I gave my all in each one.

I understood what Uncle Ben said: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Even though it was a great experience, there were days I felt overwhelmed and burnt out. The weight of everything I was doing hit me hard at times. I slept late most nights, slept in a few classes, and had my Sundays occupied with events and MEETINGS.

There’s a highlight from my second semester that I want to mention. I was feeling down that week when a guy approached me and asked if I was ‘Soji Jr’. He said he had seen the things I do on my social media platforms and thought they were great — even though he wasn’t in my faculty!

That same week, while going to an event, as I was getting my ticket scanned, the guy scanning it asked if I was Soji. I assumed he was in my level, but shockingly, he was in 400-level. He said, ‘agba dev’ and mentioned that he had seen the projects I worked on and what I post on social media. Those two encounters made my week!

My social media engagement was low at the time, but those encounters boosted my motivation to keep posting.

My second year was full of growth. I jumped out of my comfort zone by speaking in front of people even while being nervous, learnt to network, took my LinkedIn seriously, and more.

I will always be grateful for the opportunity to have met so many amazing people — friends, community members, mentors, and those who inspire me. I am also very grateful for my roommates, who were of tremendous help and support in so many ways.

Now, I’m writing this not only to document my journey but also to inspire someone, just as Mileke did for me. To show that it’s possible and that you can do it too! If there’s one thing I did, I DID EVERYTHING SCARED. I was never fully sure, but clarity came little by little.

“If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than you are now” — Master Shifu

In the end, it’s all been God.

Thank you, 200-level, for the growth.

Gratefully, Soji

I had tried many free hosting platforms for my PHP applications but was constantly frustrated by their limitations. The problems were either a lack of MySQL support, premium plans, or complex configurations. Looking for a solution, I searched the internet and asked experienced developers, but the answer kept pointing to one tool: Docker.

The recommendation was to use Docker and host on the Render platform.

When I began learning Docker, I knew that having a structured learning guide was essential; I needed a course or at least a YouTube playlist. I sought help, and my GDSC Babcock Cloud Team Lead, a DevOps Engineer, suggested a YouTube playlist that he described as ‘the simplest he has seen’.

Though the tutorial used Node.js and React.js, I applied the same principles to PHP. By modifying the Dockerfile to suit PHP’s requirements, I successfully containerized my PHP applications.

What exactly is Docker?

Here are some very common terms:

• Docker: A platform designed to help developers build, share, and run container applications.
• Containers: Lightweight, executable packages that include everything needed to run an application: code, runtime, system tools, libraries, and settings. These containers are created from Docker images at runtime.
• Docker Images: Read-only templates used to create containers.
• Dockerfile: A configuration file with instructions to build a Docker image.

Why is Docker useful?

• It solves the ‘but it runs on my machine’ problem, a common issue faced by developers, by ensuring consistency across development and production environments.
• It speeds up the configuration of the development environment. Why install Node.js on my laptop when a container has it all?
• It simplifies deployment by packaging everything an application needs into one container.

Docker helped me deploy my applications on Render, but one challenge was Render’s lack of support for Docker Compose. I would have had to use a render.yml file to manage services like databases, but to work around that, I used an external database.

Learning Docker has transformed my deployment workflow. If you’re struggling with similar issues, I highly recommend using Docker.

Check out the YouTube playlist that guided me through learning: Docker Playlist; it was a well-structured guide from installing Docker to containerizing your apps.

Also, I made a GitHub Action workflow that automates building and pushing a Docker image from your GitHub repository.

Check it out: GitHub Docker Workflow

If you found this helpful, please leave as many claps as you can (a hundred!) and share!

Connect with me on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).

A few days after the Threads app was launched, I was casually scrolling through and stumbled upon someone’s Threads post about a project the person was working on. The project was to convert Threads posts into images, similar to websites that convert posts on X (Twitter) to images.

The project was open source. After checking it out, I discovered the main functionality relied on an API. I got intrigued and decided to experiment with the API for a simple project, only to discover it wasn’t available in my preferred language at the time, PHP. That got me really annoyed, and decided I was going to work on something with or without the API.

I got working, started with research and further explored the workings of the API. It took me a day to get the frontend done as I already had a design in mind. Later, making the frontend responsive to the output became challenging.

It took me a few days to develop the backend. This was because Threads was a new platform with no technical articles available, and I had not worked with a particular library before.

I had put a lot of time into coding and fixing bugs and I felt it was time to let the public know what I had been building. Threadimage was released to the public, 2nd September, 2023. It was shared as an open source project, ‘Threadimage: Threads to Images; Takes your Threads post URL/Link and converts it to an image (threadimage).’

I got the name Threadimage as I wanted the Thread word from the app to be in the name and since I was converting the Threads post to pictures/images, the image word will work perfectly combined.

It was deployed on Heroku and had a custom domain name of “threadimage.tech” thanks to the GitHub Student Developer Pack that gives a free .tech domain. Unfortunately, Threadimage is no longer live, but you can check out the GitHub repository.

At the time I released it, I had not added all the features I desired, but I let the working version out to finish building in public. I have learnt so much about building in public and it benefits, and I kept sharing on my social media platforms, my WhatsApp status, X (Twitter) and LinkedIn regardless of the engagements I got. Looking back, I’m grateful I didn’t stop. I have been met by quite a number of people in school who complimented what I was building and anytime they did, I would always remember the statement ‘someone is always watching’.

A few weeks later, I added new features to Threadimage; an option to change the colour of Threadimage background and a feature to change font type. The background colour feature came with a little challenge for me to work on. I worked on changing the colour of the fonts according to the background colour to ensure the text was seen on every background colour. For example, a Threadimage couldn’t have a black background and still retain the default black font colour.

A very funny experience for me then, was trying to fix a bug for over two hours, only to find out I was making changes but viewing the live site instead of the local project on my laptop for the changes. I laughed so hard.

Threadimage is built with HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP. A major issue I had was displaying Threads post images and profile picture. I encountered several CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) issues, which are challenges in accessing web resources from different domains.

One of my best features I worked on while building Threadimage was link preview, it improved the appearance of Threadimages with links.

Looking back at my code, I know it needs refactoring just like my other previous projects. But I’m glad I did it even while learning. Check out the repository here — your contributions are warmly welcomed!

Building Threadimage was quite a challenge, a challenge I’m glad I took. While building, I learnt about releases on GitHub and semantic versioning. I learnt even more about building in public and I advise building in public if you aren’t already.

A major excitement was when I searched ‘threadimage’ on Google and saw my project.

Be prepared for me to cook up some more fantastic projects this year!

I still can’t believe it’s been a year since I joined GitHub. It feels like I’ve been using GitHub much longer than that.

How did I find out about GitHub?

It was during the election period last year when Google Developer Student Club (GDSC) Nigeria, a collection of several schools’ GDSC in Nigeria, held a bootcamp. We were given practice questions to turn in, and the instructor suggested using GitHub. I think I was the only person in my track who didn’t know what GitHub was. After the meeting, I searched for the website, signed up and that was the beginning.

I was in the Kotlin track for Android mobile development, and we used IntelliJ initially, so I didn’t have to learn Git or the pushing and pulling stuff. I simply exported to GitHub Gist with a click of a button on IntelliJ. I didn’t bother much about the platform then, as all I had to do was click and submit the repository link.

After the bootcamp, I didn’t use GitHub until July. Before July, I had read several conversations about GitHub on my GDSC group chat (GDSC Babcock) and saw a lot of tweets about version control on X (formerly known as Twitter).

I had said that during my summer break, I was going to learn version control and any other thing involving GitHub as it was a necessity for every developer. I watched series of videos on version control, Git/GitHub but one stood out and helped (check it out here). It was in parts, and I followed the tutor’s examples while experimenting. My experimentation later led me to discover what Open Source was.

I watched more YouTube videos, this time on what Open Source was and how to contribute. I also read a lot of articles. That was when I stumbled upon Dunsin and Eddie Jaoude.

These two individuals have shaped my Open Source journey through their tweets and activities on GitHub. I understood the importance of making my GitHub profile appealing from them, and later designed my profile README. I also learned about GitHub streaks which became my consistency meter.

Keeping streaks is something I do on Snapchat without gaining a thing, but I saw how beneficial GitHub streaks were, leading to my 39-day GitHub streak. Not only did I commit every day, I also learnt something new every single day.

Taking open source seriously, I made my first contribution, which was fixing a typo in a README which the owner had set as an issue. It was an intentional issue by the owner possibly as a good first issue. My pull request got merged, which served as an earlier motivation in my Open Source journey.

While still learning, I found out that there were features on GitHub I couldn’t access without payment, but that’s where the GitHub Student Developer Pack came in. I signed up for it. Not only did I get GitHub PRO, I also got GitHub Copilot and many other tools and resources.

I’m still glad I got the Student Developer Pack, and I continue to share the news with my coursemates and friends. If you are student, you can get the Student Developer Pack HERE.

I just had to drop a free ad.

During my 39-day GitHub streak, I worked on my portfolio website, a simple login project, Threadimage, and other projects. In the process, I earned GitHub achievements, and in the space of months, I got even more.

Later on, while sharing my learning process, I had the opportunity to speak at a webinar about Open Source hosted by She Code Africa — Babcock Chapter. It was my first webinar as a speaker, and it meant a lot to me. It showed how hard work and consistency pay off.

In the end, consistency was key. Although I didn’t discover GitHub as early as other developers did, my diligence compensated for the late start. One thing I made sure of was not just to learn it, but learn it extremely well!

If you found this insightful, give it a clap, and you can check out my GitHub @sojijr.

It was my second semester of freshman year, and my department had divided us into various groups to facilitate learning with smaller numbers. Checking the timetable was quite confusing because it had the same courses for different groups.

Encountering difficulty with the timetable, I decided to simplify the timetable for myself. Using Microsoft Word, I simplified the timetable with only the classes for the groups I was in, and I shared it with coursemates who shared the same groups. They loved it! However, others messaged me that they will love to have it for their groups as well.

At that time, I couldn’t, because how was I going to make simplified timetables for over three hundred students with different group combinations. Even if I wanted to, I would have had to make sixty different timetables for everyone to have a simplified timetable. There were still students with special group combinations.

I thought of other ways I could solve the problem and the only solution that came to my mind was a website that could generate the timetable based on their groups input.

My PHP knowledge was limited at the time because I hadn’t worked on projects for a while because of secondary school. However, I knew I could do it but had to keep it as simple and fast as possible.

In three days, I built the website using HTML, CSS, JS and PHP, and shared it on my department’s group chat. It was a really simple website with a lot of if-else statements. I didn’t want to use a database though. Still wondering how it took me three days because it’s something I can do now in a day.

Initially, it was only to let users view the timetable. But later on, I added the option to download it as an image. I hosted the project using Infinity Free Hosting as I didn’t have the GitHub Student Developer Pack at that time to be able to access Heroku freely.

After sharing it, I got a lot of messages from my coursemates saying they loved it and some even praised it on the group chat. It was even shared on my main departmental group chat by a course representative.

Since then, a lot has changed for me!

I worked on the project so people could enjoy the simplified timetable just as I did and I became quite popular. I had put a watermark with my nickname Soji Jr on the timetable and people kept mentioning the nickname. Talking to my coursemates, including the lady I liked, was easier, as they were the ones to start the conversation. They were like “aren’t you the Soji Jr guy?” I became one of the guys that “sabi” in my department because of that project.

It was just a simple website and it felt as if I created Facebook. It showed how solving a problem could go a long way. I didn’t just build anything, I built something my coursemates used.

Later on, I discontinued the project due to issues with my department’s timetable but I’m glad it served its purpose while it lasted.

I plan to refactor and rebuild it, adding more features and scalability. You can find the project repository, which I haven’t touched in a while, and contribute to it.

Building the timetable website taught me the importance of solving simple problems, which can have a surprising impact. Before starting a personal project now, I always ask myself, “Will people use it?”

Remember to build projects that solve problems, no matter how simple!

If you found this story insightful, give it a clap, and you can connect with me on various social media platforms @sojijr.

One morning, I picked up my laptop to continue working on a project, but the laptop wouldn’t turn on. I took it for repairs, but little did I know that the night before was the last time it worked.

I lost all my projects, documents, and worse of all, my “Avatar: The Last Airbender” series. Okay, no, the project was more painful. I lost my e-commerce website project, my portfolio website project back then, and the student management system project for which I had just discovered the bug the night before. But no matter what I say, you are probably saying, “you go explain tire, no evidence”.

These projects losses could have simply been prevented if I had known about Git/GitHub.

So what is Git and GitHub?

Git is a distributed version control system that tracks changes in any set of computer files. It is usually used for coordinating work among programmers who collaboratively develop source code during software development. GitHub, on the other hand, is a platform and cloud-based service for software development and version control using Git. It allows developers to store and manage their code.

To explain it to a non-tech person or how I wish someone had explained it to me when I didn’t know what it was:

Git is like Google Docs, which keeps track of your editing history and allows you to revert to previous versions. GitHub is like Google Drive, where you can store your projects and use it as an online Git. In relation to open source, GitHub is an online platform where you can host your projects, and other users can contribute to your project or benefit from it.

Now, about this Git/GitHub thingy

From not knowing what to type as a commit message, to forgetting to apply changes with ‘git fetch’ before pushing a new commit, to force-pushing and then regretting it, to accidentally pushing a commit to the wrong branch. Let’s not even talk about GitHub and those developers who haven’t merged pull requests or at least responded.

Despite all these challenges, I’ve managed to maintain my GitHub streak — a streak that actually matters.

With my considerable experience using GitHub, a tip for the quickest way to get your pull request merged or reviewed is by searching for the latest repositories and contributing to them. They mostly don’t have strict contribution guidelines like larger or older repositories.

To search for the latest repositories, sort by the ‘Recently updated’.

If you are new to Git and GitHub, you can check out this YouTube playlist that helped me.

And if you’re already familiar with Git and GitHub, there’s a Cheatsheet for Git commands.

Checkout my GitHub: @sojijr and Twitter: @sojijr

After several hours of headaches and questioning reality, I finally felt that I had learned Python.

I have been interested in learning this language for quite some time, with no intention of diving into data science or AI. Having heard Python is an easier language compared to others I’ve learned, like C and C++, I had initially given myself a week learning period but eventually learnt it in a day.

Here are few steps I took to achieve this:

• I read about the language — I learned about its features, uses and applications. Knowing that Python is a dynamically typed and object-oriented language made learning more straightforward.
• I watched a Python tutorial on YouTube — No! I didn’t watch a video of hours’ duration. Do people even watch those? I got a 20-minute Python crash course video, which I watched at 1.25x and 1.5x speed at some points. It covered topics like comments, data types, lists, conditional statements, loops, functions, and more.
• Research and extensive reading — The crash course served as an introduction, but I knew I needed more. With the help of ChatGPT, I compared Python’s syntax with that of Kotlin, as the main difference between languages is syntax. I also used the Rapt ‘N Rel Python documentation.
• Practice — I replicated several basic projects I had previously done in other languages, incorporating the concepts I had learned.

At around 11pm, after numerous attempts, debugging and questioning my life choices because of Python, I felt that tingle, and it was at that moment I knew I was no longer a beginner. Okay, that wasn’t how I knew. I had successfully replicated several basic projects that I had previously completed in other languages. I obviously haven’t learned everything about Python but I can say I’m no longer a beginner. I can finally participate in conversations involving Python!

To summarize, the more languages you learn, the faster and easier it becomes to learn newer ones. For instance, Python felt familiar to me because of my experience with Kotlin. As you learn, it is important to understand the concepts.

In the near future, I could get my hands on complex python projects and see what great things I can build with it.