Acire: Gulu’s version of Ssebagala

These days it’s not uncommon to find Gulu’s fairly well to do, sipping cold beers in the town’s pubs, nibbling chicken parts while grumbling about the town ‘not having a mayor.’

For the record, the town has one, he is called Christopher Acire, Gulu’s own version of Kampala city’s Alhaji Nasser Ntege Ssebaggala.

Not that Acire has ever been charged in the US for money laundering neither did he go to the UK for ‘Studies’, but the similarities are definitely there.

The two seem to be men who make ‘history’ whenever they go.

Last year Acire who was then LC3 Chairman of Bar-dege division enrolled to sit for his O-Level exams in a Kampala school. Upon coming back he publicly announced he had passed in a good second grade, but, like Ssebaggala’s, no one has had proof of his results.

Like Ssebaggala his English has also not improved much despite coming back from ‘school.’

He stood to contest for the Gulu Mayoral seat as ‘both’ an independent and FDC candidate.

Like it happened with Ssebaggala and Takuba there was a fight between Eng Noar Opwonya and Acire on who was the official FDC candidate.

Some FDC party officials in the district said it was Opwonya while others said it was Acire.

In the end, top FDC officials including Aswa County MP Reagan Okumu abandoned the party candidate and backed Acire who was officially an independent.

In the end, like Ssebaggala, despite his failings he emerged winner beating a self styled Engineer and the incumbent, a Masters student at Gulu University just like Ssebaggala beat media entrepreneur, Peter Ssematimba.

Gulu’s Seya runs a micro finance company called United Women Micro Finance Fund that has given small-scale loans to thousands of Gulu’s small-scale businesswomen.

Like the Kampala Seya, the Gulu Seya has presidential ambitions only that he wants to stand after 2011. He says 2011 will be for Mao after that it will be his.

The election of the two men show the dilemma posed by western democracy in a largely unschooled society.

Upon assumption of office, Ssebagala started a rapid face change of Kampala city, with the introduction of “Double Decker” buses to replace taxis as the wildest idea ever thought by the once upon a time US convict.

His town clerk came under fire and is currently facing serious charges in the courts of law. Although the investigations seem to be above the mayor’s jurisdiction, he seem to have put a weight or two on the matter.

Like his counterpart, Acire has had a serious over haul of Gulu Municipality. Upon assumption of office, the mayor started by giving a face lift to the Northern City. He has since cleared off, ‘Mayor’s Lake’, a once upon a time scene of embarrassment in rainy seasons in Gulu’s Pece Slum. The management of floods however still remains a nightmare to Ssebagala.

Acire has since put his town clerk, Samuel Okot on fire. Upon assumption, the Mayor said people like Okot were a menace, and they had to leave. The man has since been transferred to Pader, a thing many analysts in the Municipality view as the beginning the TC’s crumble.