By Andrew Cohen Amvesi
ARUA
The election of Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry leadership for Arua city which was slated to take place on November 1, 2023 flopped amidst chaos.
The election flopped over disagreement on the composition of the chamber members who double as voters.
This is after the factions of the chairpersonship contenders; Dr. Ronald Debo and Trinity Caesar Draecabo bitterly argued over the authenticity of the members presented as voters.
As a result, Jobel Ayiko, the Ayivu Division Commercial Officer who doubles as the acting Arua City Commercial Officer warned that if allowed to continue, the elections will attract legal implications due to failure to follow the required procedures.
“This election will have legal implications because its technical terms were not met. Other members will not be qualified because of failure to meet the technical requirements and besides, I’m not properly prepared by the headquarters to conduct these elections,” Ayiko said.
The standoff left the Uganda national chamber of commerce and industry team which travelled from Kampala with no option other than postponing the exercise to a later date.
However, the decision to postpone the election didn’t go well with Dr. Debo who described the move as unfortunate.
“All in all, I’m not a fan of chaos. We are aspiring to serve. Chamber is like Rotary Club; it is serving humanity but, in this case, we are serving the business community. Its main objective is to promote and protect businesses and entrepreneurs against bad policies and other challenges of business. It’s not for earning a living, it’s not for gaining wealth or what but we are trying to build ourselves as a business community and fight poverty,” Debo guided.
“The fight is not against a tribe; the fight is not against a religion or ethnicity. Business has no tribe; business has no boundary. You may do business in Uganda but your clients are coming from Congo or Sudan and you may be a Christian but your customers are Muslims, you may be this tribe but your clients are from the other tribe. So, in business there is no tribe or religion,” Debo added.
He urged the people of Arua to embrace unity other than fighting each other all the time.
“People of Arua, I’m very sad, let’s grow up! We are talking about Pan Africanism, people are talking about how to unite Africa, how to unite Uganda, now we are here splitting ourselves, fighting over tribal issues. So, as far as our team is concerned, I told our voters to remain calm, go home and wait for the next elections. We are waiting for the roadmap, I’m still a candidate though I’m going through a lot of threats but I have remained steadfast because I know the opportunity chamber has for the business entities here,” Debo said.
The failed election was meant to usher in a new team to replace the old Arua chamber leadership led by Jackson Atima Lee Buti, the current Arua Central Division MP.
