The former SLPP National Chairman and Leader said that Sierra Leone has underwent its worse periods during the reigns of APC and that the SLPP has always been that last hope in cleaning up the messes. He stated that as the very reason he and all the other stakeholders of the SLPP have decided to come together in not only returning the SLPP into governance, but also to liberate the people of this nation from the poverty and extreme suffering the APC has exposed them to “We have put all our past behind us now and we are focused on delivering this country from its present massive suffering,” the veteran politician avouched.
While responding to allegations that the SLPP is a South-East centered party, Mr. Benjamin denied the allegations and said that the SLPP has always laid premium on national inclusion both in appointments as well as in allocation of budgets.
Mr. Benjamin, who was finance minister during the past SLPP government, said that “during our time in cabinet, we were twenty three (23) in numbers. Out of that, 5 were from the East, 5 from the South, 4 from the West and 9 from the North,” the former finance minister recalled.
With chunk of the ministers coming from the North during an SLPP regime, one will realise how the SLPP situates national inclusion at the apex of its ideals and philosophies, the reverse of which many believe is happening under this present APC dispensation.
On the issue of internal democracy within the main political parties, the veteran politician stated that the SLPP is the most democratic political party in Sierra Leone “As the mother party in the country, we have always maintained high sense of democratic values. You (the media) were at our conventions and saw how democratic they were. We are the only party to have done ours that way. Other selected, but we elected ours. That is the reason we all as aspirants (then) have wholeheartedly accepted the result and now look to the task ahead, stressed JOB.
While responding to congratulatory messages on his appointment as the SLPP Head of Communications for the upcoming elections at the just concluded SLPP NEC meeting in Port Loko, JOB said that he is very excited for the position and stated: “Even if I was asked to be a cleaner within the party, I will accept it wholeheartedly if that was what my party wanted me for”. He concluded that hence he receives the necessary correspondences from the party secretariat he will start working immediately so as to ensure SLPP victory come 2018.
