Ama Udofa

At Enye, a tech nonprofit, I supervise on-brand digital content and storytelling; I am helping the community of software engineers document their engineering journeys, as well as Enye's contributions to the Nigerian tech ecosystem.

The day my spirit leaves Lagos, my body has just spent seven hours in traffic for an 8km journey. The year is 2019, and I am already fed up with the Lekki floods. I am in the second month of my NYSC, managing operations at my aunt’s logistics company at Ikota Shopping Complex, VGC. One evening in November, I leave the office at 5 PM for a 15-minute drive home. Throw in Thursday evening traffic at Ajah Under Bridge and Abraham Adesanya, and I should be home in no more than 45 minutes.
Ex...

Nsukka forces you to learn the language of dust. How it mocks you while you’re polishing your shoes early in the morning before you step out. When you buy new shoes, make sure you listen to languages rocks speak too–they are laughing at your white soled sneakers when they crackle against your feet, especially if you live in Odenigwe or Hilltop. Your jeans trousers aren’t left out either, they have to learn how to fold during the rains.

Nsukka’s weather suffers from bipolar disorder: In the mo...

At the beginning of 2010, Yar Adua was still Nigeria’s president, Wizkid was still an upcoming artiste, Blackberries were still class dividers, was still just an idea, and I was still hopelessly crushing on Faith in SS1 at St Paul’s Comprehensive Secondary School.

Game of Thrones wasn’t even a thing yet.

In 2018, Seni Sulyman, Andela’s Vice President, Global operations, tweeted about how a former company gateman got a job as a developer.
Andela was building a network of technology leaders in Africa. The goal was to bridge the chasm between the US and Africa’s technology sectors. They placed successful applicants on an intense six-month training program, after which the fellows would gain employment at partner companies in Nigeria and overseas.
Seni Sulyman’s tweet stirred up a buzz. This buzz...

In January 2004, when Kamu Kintu is lynched by a vicious crowd, a woman says, “that is what happens to a race that fails to raise to raise its value on the market.” While Kamu’s body lies unclaimed in the mortuary, we follow the Kintu lineage back to the 1750 Buddu kingdom, when the ambitious Ppookino (governor) Kintu Kidda journeyed with his tribe across the perilous wasteland, o Lwera, to swear fealty to the Kabaka of Buganda Kingdom, and unleashed a curse that would plague his descendants for generations.

The dust winds have become more frequent when Nonyelum starts spending weekends at Ayo’s self-con in Gusau. On one of those hazy mornings, they stay too long in bed, until she says they have to eat or she’ll die hungry in his arms, then disappears into the kitchenette.
Back in the room, a cockroach scuttles across. Nonyelum can’t stand the smell of cockroaches, dead ones worse so. If she weren’t around, Ayo would turn the house upside down just to squash it. But he doesn’t; instead, he reache...

How did studying Electrical and Electronics influence your decision to pursue a career in software engineering?

In my second year in university, a lecturer asked me what employable skills I had that stood me out from my peers. I couldn’t come up with anything asides ‘I am hardworking and intelligent.’ I felt bad, and, after some research, I decided that I needed to learn to code. I picked up the Sams Teach Yourself C in 24 Hours handbook, and after two months, I was able to build a GP calcula...

If you are the kind of person to judge books by their covers, then you may be expecting a sun-filled, fun-filled read in the Land of Always Summer, when you pick up Here Comes the Sun. But it only takes the first three pages for Here Comes the Sun (HCTS) to jolt you out of your fantasy.

Cool evening breeze wafts lazily through the settlement, whipping up red-brown dust and loose dirt that head for people’s eyes. It is this kind of breeze that soothes and sometimes tickles your armpits.
It is on evenings like this that men like to sit on their verandahs discussing politics, playing draughts, while downing shots of ogogoro that seem to never finish. The ogogoro makes them laugh boisterously at intervals, punctuating their animated discussions in dramatic fashion.
On such eveni...

Cool evening breeze wafts lazily through the settlement whipping up red-brown dust and loose dirt that head for people’s eyes. It is this kind of breeze that soothes and sometimes tickles underneath your armpits.
It is on such evenings that men like to sit on their verandahs discussing politics, playing draughts, while downing shots of ogogoro that seem to never finish. The ogogoro makes them laugh boisterously at intervals, punctuating their animated discussions in dramatic fashion.
It is on...

Ama Udofa spins an introspective narrative with “Still Full, Still Feeling”, and earns himself the first runner-up spot in the Fiction category.
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After a witty comment you made on a mutual friend’s Facebook post, she’d sent you a friend request and thereafter this private message:
Aurora Ezea
You’re friends on Facebook
Lives in Abuja, Nigeria
6 Nov 2016 at 01:08
“Okay, I’m literally still cracking up
Are you an egg?”
“Like the one I’m about to fry?”
In the following weeks, you met her offl...

This brochure provides insights into ONIX's strategic vision, performance, growth and expansion plans for the month of 2018. ONIX FINANCIERA is a Mexico-based company for financial solutions that understands the intricate needs of the financial market and seeks above all to establish long-term relationships.