THE CEO OF CoPsMoW-SL COMMENDS AND SENDS STRONG MESSAGE TO SLDC-FBC

You're reading chronicles and chants coming from the lithosphere of Old Railway Line, Brookfields, where I am very close to my tabe, as I twist down the lines of coded words to quench my thirst to a mammoth of great minds called the Sierra Leone Debating Council. In this quietude of time, as early as 5AM, there's no denying that almost everyone except those set to greet the masjid are still beating the drums of sleep in bed. While this is, indeed true, I am up with a pen drafting covenant of a brotherly piece in an apostolic niche. Ahaha! 

Now, do you agree that in the world of irresistible creative writing, specially in this day and age, the name Peterson stands a beacon of hope, and one who reaffirms uncaught diversity in craft with exactitude? Well, today, you'd read another fresh flow from a distance. First off, you'd be astounded that Peterson has penned a few words to the Council--precisely that he is one, who, by shakes of time, hardly gets a focus on this body. 

In blood and bone, kindly care and permit me to withhold anything other than sending my unyoke congratulations to the FBC family--for the victory you secured yesterday. I will tell you plainly that this was the Lord’s doing, and no other explanation suffices. 

To carry home fifty thousand New Leones in a season where resources are thin and expectations are heavy is to say that you wrestled, you persisted, and you refused to be diminished by circumstance. I was personally moved, even from afar, by the support and the cheerful giving that poured out of our FBC fellows during the course of the debate competition. Your applause was not noise. It was anointing, a wind beneath the wings of those who stood to speak. 

Special thanks must be ascended to the representatives who carried the banner with dignity: Mr. Lappia, Abdulrahman Jalloh, Nagimu Deen, and above all, Coach Esther Tholley. I was not present in the hall yesterday, yet the joy that traveled back to me was an uncontainable current. It reached me like light through a shuttered window and settled into a quiet gratitude in my spirit. 

As one who has had the privilege of representing Sierra Leone and other regions of Africa in Creative Writing and Pan-African Leadership, and as a faith-led advocate for youths and students, I write to you today on behalf of the Coalition of Public Speakers and Modern Writers, CoPsMoW-SL. We extend our most gracious appreciation. We have watched you, we have prayed for you, and we rejoice with you because your triumph is not only FBC’s triumph. It is a signal to every young voice in this nation that intellect, discipline, and conviction still matter. 

Moreover, I write to offer a piece of counsel that I hope you will receive in the same spirit in which it is given. First, your team requires more intentional time for structural representation. The Fourah Bay College delegation performed admirably, and yet I observed a subtle absence of arithmetic in the architecture of your arguments. Not arithmetic in figures alone, but in the balancing of claims, the weighting of evidence, and the sequencing of rebuttals. That small gap is what made the competition feel tougher than it needed to be, what made victory hover on the edge of possibility rather than rest securely in your hands. But thank God for logic. On the first day, Lappia severed the line of challenge against FBC. His intuitiveness, coupled with a kind of radical logic, opened a pathway where there seemed to be none. I understood clearly that this was teamwork. Still, it was maturity and professionalism that finally tipped the scale in your favor. Given that, I urge you, as elders urge younger siblings, to sit down and restructure the entire team. Examine the skeleton, not just the skin. Ask who is responsible for research depth, who guards time, who tracks the flow of argument, and who ensures that every speaker enters the room with the same level of preparation and poise. 

Next, do not allow yourselves to be moved by the transient cheer in that hall. FBC is a great institution. By far and by long-standing record, this has been the very primus of academia in our land, and so we have no doubt in reaffirming our support in times such as this, and in times to come like the Bydon Laudon debate. Let this team aim higher than the immediate horizon. Your concern should be set far above rising universities alone. You seemed to feel the task was hard, perhaps because there was not yet full professional respect for intentional organizational skill and structure. As an elder, I place this before you: let this be the last time you struggle in winning a national debate. I prithee, let the aim be deliberate. If you ask me why, I will answer that you are above Sierra Leone levels. Remember that Lappia and Mohammed Sulaiman Jalloh have already carried our flag beyond our borders. Therefore, rising universities such as MMTU, ETU, UniMak, among others, should not be the ceiling of your ambition. They are worthy competitors, but they are not your final measure. John C. Maxwell once said that leadership starts with character and mindset. In other words, if you think big, you will rise big. And so, this is my submission to you: expand the canvas of your imagination. 

To another front, I beg you to remain peaceful. The Sierra Leone Debating Council is expected to stay calm because it is the first leadership breeding ground for national decision-making. It is where voices are tempered, where disagreement is refined into policy, and where the future learns how to argue without tearing itself apart. Therefore, let the union be so knit together in unity that no side fraternity of oddness should split you. You may be shocked to know that recently rumors broke out that the union is still maintaining people who are believed to have left the union long ago and have joined the Black Klub, yet they continue to occupy leadership roles. As a communication specialist, I am trained to treat information that is alleged with caution. It should not move me without verification, and my craft is not built on speculation. Still, I offer this as a simple reminder. Try, as hard as possibility allows, to eliminate from sensitive positions those who, by error or by design, are found wanting in loyalty and integrity. Do not forget that the Council is being watched from afar. The nation is watching. Stakeholders are watching. And with that watching comes a responsibility to keep standards, to keep professionalism, and to keep the moral clarity that makes leadership credible. 

In closing this portion of my thoughts, I write personally to thank the auxiliary teammates. I know you were not named on the program. I know the spotlight fell on the team leads, and that was clear to everyone. But most graciously, your presence and your indirect support throughout the competition were intrinsically acknowledged beyond measure. The water you carried, the notes you passed, the prayers you whispered, the late-night rehearsals you attended, all of it mattered. Keep doing the good. Do not allow any sort of doubt to cling to your feet. Remember that the good Lord knows and recognizes your undying love to humanity. Have it in mind that one day, and just one day, you will be gifted by the Almighty in ways that no trophy can capture. 

Among other things, let the team strive to train voraciously. Let the new school rise above normal delivery. For whichever way we look at it, FBC should by now have a different set of young representatives ready to go ahead of the Council, even aside from Lappia and the executive. Give time for rehearsals. Miles Munroe reaffirmed that behind every public manifestation there is a secret rehearsal. In that truth lies a discipline. You must train as though your life depends on it, because in many ways it does. If you ask me why I speak so strongly about this, I will tell you that I am someone who has barely attended Council meetings for reasons best known to me. I, Peterson, am etched toward writing almost every day. That is where my altar is. Yet I understand why rehearsing a skill keeps one alive. I believe a day is coming when I will still be called to many competitions, and it is believed that in this AI age, it is only a few of us who still sit down and write from the human brain. That is the abysmal public mismatch today. Machines can assemble sentences, but they cannot carry the tremor of a lived story, the weight of a conviction, or the quiet fire of a conscience. Train the new school, please. Teach them to think before they type, to argue before they answer, to listen before they speak. 

May the good Lord sincerely keep making ways for the Council. May He open doors that no policy can shut and close doors that would lead you into compromise. My last wish is that you all grow in the fear of the Lord. Let that fear be the compass that steadies you when applause is loud and when criticism is louder. May the flesh never lead you into a distorted self, where ego replaces service and where visibility replaces virtue. 

To the entire FBC family, to the debaters, to the coaches, to the supporters who gave cheerfully, to the silent workers whose names were not called, I say thank you. Your victory is a parable. It tells every young person in Sierra Leone that diligence still pays, that ideas still win, and that character still crowns effort. Carry this win with humility. Use the resources to build structures, not just moments. Document what worked. Archive the arguments that succeeded. Mentor the ones coming behind you so that the standard does not dip when one set graduates. 

And to the leadership of the Council, I charge you with peacekeeping and with excellence. Let your meetings be places where iron sharpens iron, not where factions sharpen knives. Let your elections be clean, your records be transparent, and your succession be planned. The nation needs a debating culture that produces not just winners, but statesmen. 

Finally, from the Coalition of Public Speakers and Modern Writers, CoPsMoW-SL, receive our gratitude once more. We are with you. We are for you. And we believe that this is only the beginning of a larger story that God is writing through you. 

Yours in service,  

Bishop Sahr Isaac Peterson  

Coalition of Public Speakers and Modern Writers, CoPsMoW-SL  

Vice President at Poetry Reading Club, PRC, FBC, University of Sierra Leone  

President of Association of Pan-African Authors, APA-SL  

Youth and Students Advocate