President Paul Kagame has piled pressure on Rwandan leaders to do more to realise the country’s goals amid tough economic challenges, Chimp Corps report.
“We must work together. Coordination and communication is essential. Working alone you cannot achieve much; you have to talk to each other,” said Kagame a few days ago as he opened the 14th National Leaders’ Retreat at Gabiro.
“We should use our heads and our hearts. How can we stay the same yet this is the 14th retreat? There has to be change,” he emphasised.
During the retreat this past weekend, officials submitted worrying statistics about the strides taken by government to transform the country.
For example officials said productivity, use of improved seeds, quality of livestock and plant disease control, have not improved enough.
It also was observed that manufacturing remained stagnant, possibly due to low demand for manufactured goods.
In the services sector, growth in hotels and restaurants services was disappointing at below 5 percent, reflecting challenges in quality of services and low spending per tourist.
Kagame expressed confidence that leaders can do serious business and reboot themselves “to do what the people of Rwanda expect from us.”
The President is keen on results as he prepares to start campaigns for presidency this year.
In a country with a weak opposition, Kagame has for long wooed hearts and minds of his countrymen through service delivery.
Neat roads connecting towns and villages; well-stocked hospitals and schools; and superb public transport have seen Kagame win popularity across the country.
But the latest trends are unappetizing and could see Kagame take radical steps to clean up the system.
Officials said mining growth was affected by the decrease in international process and regulations.
They further averred that slow growth in hotels and restaurants services was reflecting challenges in quality of services and low spending per tourist.
However, trade growth was consistently high though short of targets.
Unity
Kagame emphasised that, “although achieving what we want and reaching where we want to be may prove difficult, we have an ambition that demands us to go forward. That ambition that keeps pushing us to question why it had to be us to go through the kind of history we went through.”
To hit government’s targets, Kagame rooted for unity and ethics, saying individualistic attitude hinder the country’s growth.
“Our tragic history means that we cannot move at the same pace as others. We are trying to cover an extremely huge deficit. We need ambition, sense of urgency and a dignified life. Our primary task is to match our ambitions with our deeds, our activities and what we expect to be the outcomes,” said Kagame.
“You can’t have ambition and the desire to leave our history far behind us and at same time behave as if you can take your time and as if you can afford to have a sense of entitlement. What are you entitled to?” he added.
“And who owes it to you in a situation like ours? If you want to stand out on your own and feel more important than others, you are simply destroying the cause that pulls all of us together as a nation. You may be more knowledgeable than everyone in the room but you need to have your heart in the right place. To use your skills, you need to have your heart in the right place to use it for the benefit of this country and the people who have suffered.”