Dr. Martin Jerome Okec Aliker, a Ugandan dental surgeon, businessman, entrepreneur, and community leader, has passed away at 95. Those close to the family say he died on Monday morning. The cause of his death was not yet known by the time of writing this story.
Dr. Aliker was a senior presidential adviser and has sat on the boards of directors of nearly forty Ugandan companies. He also served as the chancellor of Victoria University Uganda. From 2004 until 2014, he served as the founding chancellor of Gulu University, a public university.
As a former Monitor Publications Limited (MPL) board chairperson, Dr. Aliker is credited with overseeing the merger between the Monitor and Nation Media Group (NMG). He also served on the boards of Coca-Cola, Uganda Breweries, Stanbic Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank, among others.
Dr. Aliker was born in Gulu District on 21 October 1928 to Rwot Lacito Okech and Julaina Auma, a daughter of Musa Ali, the first ordained Anglican priest in the Acholi region.
He attended Gulu High School for his primary education before transferring to Kings College Budo for his O-Level studies. In 1948, he was admitted to Makerere University, the oldest public university in East Africa. Before he could complete his studies at Makerere, he won a scholarship to Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, United States, where he studied political science, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Following that, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study dental surgery, also at Northwestern, graduating with a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. Later, he was awarded the title of Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.