Uket, Jacob Abam (Olympian Jake).

Uket Jacob Abam

Olympian Jake

Founder/Executive Director, Discover Ugep
Content Creator | Social Media Strategist | Digital Promoter | Cultural Advocate.

Uket Jacob Abam, widely known by his creative name Olympian Jake, is a Nigerian content creator, social media strategist, digital promoter, storyteller and cultural advocate from Ugep, Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria.

He is the Founder and Executive Director of Discover Ugep, a digital heritage and cultural documentation initiative established to preserve, document, interpret and promote the history, traditions, language, people, places, personalities, cuisine and cultural identity of the Ugep people.

Discover Ugep is formally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as Discover Ugep Hub, giving the initiative a formal organisational identity as it develops its broader mission of cultural preservation, documentation, education and community development.

Early Life and Background

Uket Jacob Abam was born on 20 October 1993 and is a native of Egbizum Ikpakapit in Ugep, Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State.

He spent much of his formative years in Ugep, where his experiences within the community developed his appreciation for its people, history, traditions and identity.

His growing interest in the stories and heritage of his people eventually evolved into a larger personal mission: ensuring that important knowledge about Ugep is not lost, forgotten or confined to scattered oral accounts and private collections.

Education

Uket received his early education at All Saints Presbyterian Academy, Ugep, before proceeding to Dr. Okoi Arikpo Memorial Secondary School, Ugep.

He later studied Fisheries and Aquatic Science at the Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH), now the University of Cross River State, graduating in 2017.

In 2020, he completed his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Gombe State, where he served at the Gombe State Ministry of Agriculture.

Although his academic training is in fisheries and aquatic science, his professional journey has increasingly taken him into media, digital communication, entrepreneurship, storytelling and cultural advocacy.

Media and Creative Career

Under the name Olympian Jake, Uket has developed a creative identity around content creation, storytelling, social commentary, personal development and digital communication.

His work focuses on communicating ideas in ways that connect with young people and broader audiences. He sees social media not merely as a platform for entertainment, but as a powerful tool for education, storytelling, advocacy, community engagement and cultural preservation.

His broader creative philosophy is centred on using media to inspire growth, preserve culture, influence conversations and give meaning to people's experiences.

The Founding of Discover Ugep

One of Uket Jacob Abam's most significant accomplishments is the conception and founding of Discover Ugep.

The initiative emerged from his concern about the preservation of Ugep's history and cultural knowledge. He recognised that much of the community's historical and cultural knowledge existed in oral traditions, personal memories, old photographs, family collections, publications and the memories of elders and custodians of tradition.

He became increasingly concerned about what could happen to this knowledge if it was not deliberately documented and preserved.

From that concern came an idea: to create a central digital platform where the history and heritage of Ugep could be documented, organised and made accessible to the world.

Uket conceived the initiative and began developing the vision into a practical project through research, consultations, field visits, documentation, photography, collection of historical materials and engagement with people knowledgeable about Ugep's past and present.

The project subsequently developed into Discover Ugep, with Uket serving as its Founder and Executive Director.

The initiative is now formally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as Discover Ugep Hub.

What Discover Ugep Represents

Discover Ugep is more than a website. It is a long-term attempt to create a digital memory of a people.

The platform is designed to document and present areas including:

- Ugep's history and migration traditions
- Culture and traditional institutions
- The Leboku Festival
- Lokaa language and vocabulary
- Traditional leadership and royal heritage
- Matriclans and genealogy
- Traditional religious institutions
- Indigenous cuisine
- Important places and landmarks
- Notable sons and daughters of Ugep
- Historical photographs and visual archives
- Oral traditions and community stories
- Contemporary institutions and developments
- The values, identity and way of life of the Ugep people

The vision extends beyond people currently living in Ugep. Discover Ugep is intended to serve members of the Ugep diaspora, researchers, students, historians, tourists and future generations seeking to understand the community and its heritage.

His Role as Founder

As the Founder of Discover Ugep, Uket provides the initiative's central vision and direction.

From the original conception of the idea to research, content development, community engagement, digital strategy and the development of the platform, he has remained deeply involved in transforming the concept into a functioning cultural project.

His approach is rooted in the belief that cultural preservation should not be left entirely to the passage of time. It requires deliberate documentation, organisation and preservation.

His goal is therefore not simply to create a website about Ugep, but to help establish a lasting digital archive of Ugep's collective memory.

Cultural Advocacy

Uket believes that a people who understand their history are better equipped to understand their identity and shape their future.

Through Discover Ugep and his wider creative work, he advocates for cultural preservation, community pride, responsible storytelling, education, social cohesion and the use of modern technology to preserve traditional knowledge.

His work seeks to bridge generations—bringing the knowledge of elders and custodians of tradition into a digital environment where younger generations can discover, understand and engage with it.

Community and Social Impact

Beyond cultural documentation, Uket has used his digital platforms to engage conversations around young people, personal development, community relations, social responsibility and issues affecting society.

He believes young Africans should not merely consume stories about their communities; they should also participate in documenting, preserving and shaping those stories.

This belief remains central to his work as a content creator and cultural advocate.

Vision and Legacy

Uket Jacob Abam's long-term ambition is to build work that possesses value beyond the moment.

Through Discover Ugep, he hopes to contribute to the preservation of a cultural heritage that can be accessed by generations yet unborn.

His vision is for Discover Ugep to grow beyond its current digital form into a respected cultural institution and heritage platform capable of connecting Ugep's history and identity with Nigeria and the wider world.

For Uket, the project represents a simple but profound idea:

A people should be able to find themselves in their own history.

His work continues at the intersection of media, technology, culture, storytelling and community development, driven by the conviction that the stories of a people deserve to be documented, preserved and passed forward.

Uket Jacob Abam (Olympian Jake) is the Founder and Executive Director of Discover Ugep, formally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission as Discover Ugep Hub.