Interim President of Ambazonia:

Who exactly is Sisikou Ayuk Julius Tabe?

Sisikou Julius Ayuk Tabe

Sisikou Julius AyukTabe, also fondly called Tobo Tobo by his village peers, was born in 1965 in Ewelle village in Eyumojock subdivision of the South West region. His father, a farmer, died early, so Julius was sponsored by his elder siblings.

                Ayuk Julius did his primary education in Ewelle village and later at Ekok town, at the border with Nigeria.

                In 1978, after his First School Leaving Certificate, he enrolled in Government High School, GHS Mamfe, where he did seven straight years, obtaining the GCE O Levels in 1983 and the GCE A Levels in 1985.   

                Haven passed the GCE A levels with flying colours, Julius gained a Scholarship to study in the United Kingdom in 1985. Here he obtained a BSc (combined honours) in Mathematics and Computer Sciences from Keele University, in 1988, and a Master’s degree in Control Engineering from the University of Sheffield in 1989.

                Upon returning to the country, he taught for a short while at the Ecole Nationale Polytechnique in Yaounde before gaining employment as software developer with the then electricity production and distribution company, Sonel, in 1992. He was amongst the company’s first network administrators in the early ‘90s.

                Whilst at Sonel, Julius wrote applications for Billing Systems & Customer Relationship Management (CRM); Human Resources management; Bank reconciliation management and Technical Maintenance and Evaluation. In 2002, after spending ten years at Sonel, Julius was elevated to Management Level. He served successively as the regional manager for the Centre region and later the North region.

                During his time as software developer with Sonel, Julius also did part-time consultancy with the Cameroon General Certificate of Education Board, GCE Board, where he designed and implemented an application for the management of the GCE Ordinary and Advanced Level Exams. The application is still used today by the Board to manage the registration of students; production of candidates’ and school time-tables, as well as production of results and result-slips.

                Julius left Sonel in 2006 and joined Cisco Systems in Nigeria. He was manager of the company’s Networking Academies for 23 countries in West & Central Africa, including Mauritania in the North and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the South.

                As manager of Cisco systems, Julius visited Cameroon several times, installing Cisco applications in several public and private institutions, including Camtel and Ministry of P&T.

                In 2011 Julius moved from Cisco Systems to join the American University of Nigeria as the pioneer Chief Information Officer of the institution. Here he supervises the University’s technology deployment, use and maintenance. He heads three departments: Department of Information Technology (DIT) which is in charge of IT infrastructure, Dept of Information Systems (DIS) in charge of ERP applications, and the Dept of Auxiliary Services (DAS) which is in charge of professional and certification-training amongst other things. As Information Officer, he also supervises Cisco certifications training programs such as CCNA, CCNP, Wireless, Video, Security, etc.

                A cut-steeped-and-dried IT expert, Julius has more than 25 years of working experience in the ICT industry, 15 of which have been in senior management.

                A culture and tradition enthusiast, Julius is member of the Ekpe society, a very revered traditional society of the Ejagham people in Manyu Division. He travelled to his village, Ewelle, in 2015, and organized a larvish ceremony to mark his promotion to the rank of Sisikou  of Ekpe.

                 He is also a farmer and an active player in the development of his village and his community. We can confirm that he owns a vast plantation in his native Eyumojock subdivision and visits his siblings on a regular basis.

                He also from time to time, sponsores inter-village tournaments to keep students busy during the long holidays, and also gives scholarships to pupils and students of his village, apart from contributing charitably to village development projects.

                His contemporaries here describe him as a level-headed, respectful and very jovial persona. Many also admit that he possesses exceptional leadership qualities. But many also said they were surprised to learn that he was leader of the faction of the Anglophone freedom movement (Ambazonia) that advocates secession from Cameroon.

                Julius is married to his secondary school friend and classmate, Lilian Bakia. They are blessed with five children; four girls and a boy.