How journalism brought me into tech engineering in US —Newton-Ray Ukwuoma, ex-Tribune reporter

The co-founder of Mamaket, Newton-Ray Ukwuoma, an award winning former reporter of the Nigerian Tribune, speaks in this interview with Saturday Tribune on how reporting tech in Nigeria took him to a tuition-free software engineering school in Silicon Valley, California, United States of America, which challenged him to build a tech business.

 

You joined the Nigerian Tribune right after graduating from the Department of English at the University of Lagos. Have you always wanted to be a journalist? 

To be honest, after I left the university, I was quite desperate to work or gain some experience before the one-year national service. In January 2012, while we were waiting for our call-up letter, I showed up at the gate of the Nigerian Tribune, CV in hand. I told the gatekeeper I had an urgent need to see the editor. I was idle anyway, so it didn’t hurt to try. I was amazed that the gatekeeper let me in. So, I told the Editor (Daily) that I wanted to work for the organisation without pay. He was intrigued but he understood why. You can’t work gainfully if you hadn’t served. It was against the law. It also happened that he was hiring people at that time. He asked me to write a four-page essay on the spot. Afterwards, I was told to resume the following day. That was how I began my journey to journalism.

I was an intern at that time. I worked on the subeditor’s desk until I got my call-up letter from the NYSC and I left. I joined the Nigerian Tribune because I didn’t want to be idle at home, but I found the love and camaraderie in the workplace so refreshing that I looked forward to becoming a reporter. I became a senior reporter after I completed my national service.

 

You covered a number of beats and actually won the award of the Tourism Reporter of the Year 2018 and a nomination as the Innovative Reporter of the Year in 2019. What were your high points as a journalist?

I reported entertainment, tourism, health and community news. I also covered the events of the United States Consulate in Lagos as well as the British Council. It was a busy career. Winning the award was definitely one of the greatest moments in my life. Dad was proud. It feels good to be recognised. But my high points were the times I learned new things or acquired new skills during my work, when I met an amazing person or people, when I travelled out of my comfort zone in pursuit of a story, when I saw my byline while pretending to join bystanders read early morning newspapers and when my stories made little impacts on people’s lives – and they did a few times. Journalism has shaped my mind. Being a journalist gave me a lot of access and opportunities, but I benefited greatly from the omniscient eye that allowed me to see things in different ways and not have a single story about a matter. Also, the awareness of how human structures like government, economy, education, entertainment, health, sports and technology work was the greatest impact on journalism to me.

 

About impact, you wrote about Google and Facebook in your stories. Is it a surprise that you are currently a CEO of a tech company in Nigeria and the US? 

In many ways, it was a surprise. When I started writing about tech, I didn’t see myself in it. I started writing about technology, specifically software development and developers, because I was invited to events which Google, Facebook and Youtube organised in Nigeria. But it was also from covering these events that I first came in contact with a band of computer programmers in Nigeria and abroad and became very curious about the language of programming.

 

And would you say that covering IT events made you study software engineering?

I would say so. However, a few precipitating factors may have contributed to it. But I would concentrate on the role of journalism. I had my own personal curiosities at the time, but at some point in my career, I got very attached to the Google programmers in Nigeria and so was travelling with them from state to state to cover some of their events – conferences, launches and training. At that same time, I was also reading about new media and its impact on traditional journalism. And it was the time of ‘fake news’ also. I didn’t like the label ‘fake news’ and I wanted to do something about it. In fact, I started to nurse an idea, a solution that would make news easily verifiable and authenticated. I actually designed an interface for it, which was a huge milestone for me. But I didn’t have the skills or resources to build it.

 

Shortly after you won the award, you relocated to study Software Engineering in the US. How did that happen?

I was invited to cover an event by Tech Women from California at the behest of the US Consulate in Lagos. During the meet-and-greet session, I approached a lady who got interested in my design. I told you I had designed an interface for a solution to fake news?

 

Yes, but did you do it yourself?

No, I had help from a UX/UI designer. So, when I showed her the interface on my phone, she liked it so much and told me to apply to a school of Software Engineering called 42 School in Silicon Valley. She believed that I could learn programming and be able to design my idea myself. That was ridiculous to me. She sent me lots of documents to prepare me. She encouraged me to also begin with Youtube videos on programming. She told me I could do it, so I tried. I was accepted to study at 42 School in Silicon Valley, California. It was a free tuition and free accommodation school. I didn’t have to worry so much. Within the same period, I got another invitation to the US for another media work. So, my ticket was paid, and I didn’t have to worry about that too. That was how it began for me.

 

Tell us about the school. Can anyone that is interested in programming apply to this school?

Absolutely. I would encourage anyone who is truly interested in software programming to apply. The only setback I see is the pandemic. Nevertheless, 42 School is a college-level school for software programming. It is a free-tuition and peer-to-peer learning environment. The school, however, is not for the faint-hearted. If you have any experience in programming, you are welcome. If you don’t, you are still welcome. The school is also located in Canada, France, South Africa, Russia, among other places. I couldn’t have known about it if not for journalism.

 

What is studying abroad like?

It is tough and rigorous. Like I said, 42 is not a place for the faint-hearted. Many who got accepted left the school within days. If you feel you are not cut out for computer programming, the school has a way of bringing it out of you. I struggled to adapt to a new environment and a new field. Before I came to the US, I already had a deconstructed idea about my study. Just like I was saying earlier, I was interested in the language of programming – computer programming – because I saw computers like newborn babies, lacking in mental intelligence at birth. It was my job, I believed, to learn the language to communicate with the computer and to imbue it with intelligence. I knew I had a special place in computer programming because I began to trace some similarities between human language study and computer language study and the idea behind computer science in general. The mention of terms like codes, syntax, meaning, method, dictionaries, libraries, were familiar terms in my previous study. It made me feel at home. For me, I had studied human language; it was time to study machine language. I saw the whole study more like a continuation of my study in English language and literature. So, I didn’t struggle with terms like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics, Virtual and Extended Reality. I knew very early how I fit into these aspects of software engineering. All I just wanted was time. Things became very comforting after I came to this understanding and from then on, it didn’t matter if I failed; I was ready to do anything to grasp the knowledge and the skill set to instill intelligence and make computers smart.

 

Let’s talk about Mamaket, a tech solution you launched recently. Why did you decide to build Mamaket?

During the lockdown in March 2020, a few friends and I were toying with an idea that gives people the opportunity to quickly convert the fairly used items or things they didn’t want into cash. In the middle of the lockdown especially in Lagos, a lot of people were complaining that they couldn’t go out to work. Shops were closed, businesses were shut down. We felt that if people had access to a platform that made their fairly used items or things they don’t need visible to their neighbours, then they could easily convert them to cash without having to own a shop or walk a mile to dispose them. That was how Mamaket started. Our secondary motivation was to make online shopping extremely easy to use such that even the market woman who is not tech-savvy can begin to feel they might have a shot at it. We, kind of, designed Mamaket with the market women in mind.

 

Are they your target?

We can’t say they are the target but we had them in mind while designing it. Knowing that times are changing and life isn’t what it used to be, we had to hope it encourages them to try online shopping. Someone somewhere has to think about them anyway. But it is for people who have things to sell to their neighbours.

 

How does Mamaket work?

As a C2C mobile marketplace, Mamaket integrates proximity mapping and hashtag optimisation to make buyers see products that are closest to them when they search. We prioritise neigbhourhood visibility because we want people to have access to all the products and services in their vicinity such that they wouldn’t have to travel far to get them. We also make provision for direct delivery in the event you find a product that is more than a mile away from you. But with the structure of our platform, we believe you can always find what you want within a ‘trekking’ distance. We want to prove that what you seek in faraway Sokoto (state) is actually right in your sokoto (trousers pockets).

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