Dr Martin Aliker, a dental surgeon, businessman, entrepreneur, and community leader, is dead.
Those close to the family say he died on Monday morning. He was 95. The cause of his death was not yet known by the time of writing this story.
Aliker served as a senior adviser to the President of Uganda and sat on the board of directors of nearly forty Ugandan companies. He was also the chancellor of Victoria University Uganda, a private institution
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 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 region of the Acholi.
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. Later, he was awarded the title of Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
