By Sanpha Sesay
Dallas, Texas, September 17, 2015. The keynote speaker, Pastor Florence Bangura stated on Saturday, September 12, that the States House is destined to be a permanent residence for the leadership of the All People’s Congress-APC party. She made this conclusion remark after she had made a systematic account of the two major political parties, APC and SLPP at a very diverse fundraising event of the All People’s Congress APC-USA branch in Texas.
Mrs. Bangura enumerated enough evidence for a conviction to the audience that the APC is the only party that has deepened democracy through greater citizen participation in local governance, and has promoted the country to higher heights economically, politically, peace and development.
Mrs. Bangura went on to share the history of the two major political parties, APC and SLPP, saying that the SLPP was originated from a collection of paramount Chiefs predominantly from the North with some elites such as Sir. Milton Margai, Siaka Stevens from the trade union movement and few others to form what was called, ‘Countryman party’. On the other hand, the APC party was then brought forth from the SLPP movement due to disagreement from the first, however, with regard to the measure of loyalty to the British by Sir Milton Margai and other issues brought to a withdrawal of Dr. Siaka P. Stevens from SLPP and convinced other members to form the APC party.
In a concise speech, the President of the APC Dallas chapter, Mr. Sheik Daboh said that the APC party is always trying to maintaining its political status quo, thus has successfully accomplished what is needed in practice for a political system to function democratically. As he put it, the party operate in a trajectory define principles and disciplines in different ways. The first one was about the basic civil and political rights of citizens which the APC leadership strictly demanded from the British colonial power to conduct elections before independence. In the 70s, the APC party brought to its goal to have the country to a Republic State and in the past presidential and Parliamentary elections the party worn all the elections with what was described in a popular slogan called, 4-4-4.
When he was directly addressing the opposition members who overwhelmingly came to support the fundraising party, Mr. Sheik Daboh expressed his support for our countries defined democracy with strong oppositions in place. He added that the principle of legitimate political opposition is one of a fundamental component of any liberal democracy. Therefore, he advised the opposition to conform to the guiding principles of true democracy our country deserved.
Despite the fundamental disagreement between the two political parties, SLPP and APC in our country, the Sierra Leone community in the metropolitan cities of Dallas Fort Worth in Texas believe in the ideology of mutual exchange and tranquility. The harmony between the two parties in the metroplex is growing closer and closer to avoid serious disparity. That was the reason the president of the APC Dallas; Mr. Sheik Daboh applied one of the APC tactics by offering the SLPP Executive to intermingle them with a senior APC member, Mr. E.T. Kamara to occupy the High Table. Many people astonish to see that structure, but according to Sheik Daboh, it is evidence of coexistence in our community. The dance closed in a peaceful atmosphere at 5 AM.
