“We leave here, we go and repeat the same things. So you are telling me what you are doing now to rectify something you should have done two years ago, three years ago. But you are not telling me why it wasn’t done at that time.
You people behind there, are you listening to me?! I think you are there happy to be tweeting, chatting and looking down, not paying attention. This is a serious matter I want all of us to address. We can’t keep repeating ourselves and doing nothing about it.
It’s a shame. It’s the young people. It’s the old. It’s those who really think they know everything in this world. It’s those who are struggling. But you find them all behaving the same people. We have young people who are always making everyone aware that they are young people. Yes you are young, but what are you delivering? Well-Educated? Fine. But what is that being well-educated delivering to these people of Rwanda? If you are not doing what is expected of you, it doesn’t matter how much educated you are.
And you better listen more to the one who criticizes you because it challenges you to think critically and see what to change. Don’t listen too much to those who praise you. Listen less to one who praises you and more to who criticizes you. Learn from the criticisms. Do something about it. Don’t just be so full of yourselves as individuals because if that was delivering something to us, we would be thankful but it’s not.
And let me tell you this. I am really sounding angry, which I am.
The challenges of Rwanda are different than what you see elsewhere. We have to struggle every single day to get what we want to get. No one is going to deliver it for us and to us.
We know what goes wrong every single day but we expect that someone else is going to do it. That somebody else is you. We shouldn’t do things on the basis that we are better than so and so. We have many people to compare ourselves to, to deceive ourselves that we are actually very good.
Okwigereranya must stop!!! What does comparing deliver to us? Just feel good that we are better than someone else? Comparison with neighbours doesn’t make sense to me. The point at the end of the day: “What are we doing for our people?” If you want to compare yourself, then do so with those who’ve achieved what we are struggling to achieve, not those who are worse off. It’s a shame.
This nation of Rwanda shouldn’t be comparing ourselves with the worst. We should be thinking; “how much more do we need to do, to get there?” That’s our claim everyday. ….”
—-Part of what President Kagame said at the retreat.
Watch full talk below: