Choices made by Rwandans in the last 21 years have led the country to stability and development and efforts should be made strategically to protect what was achieved and gain more.
Choices made by Rwandans in the last 21 years have led the country to stability and development and efforts should be made strategically to protect what was achieved and gain more.
The commitment was made by officials and citizens taking part in the ongoing National Dialogue Council.
The thirteenth edition of the National Dialogue Council (Umushyikirano), which opened in Kigali, yesterday, and is wrapping up today has attracted more than 1000 participants, including members of the civil society, government officials, police and army officers, members of the private sector, members of the diplomatic corps, and Rwandans living in the Diaspora.
President Paul Kagame opened the dialogue with a message that highlighted the success of Rwandans to turn their lives around after the devastating 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, noting that it was the result of homegrown choices, which he sees as the best way to gain even more in the future.
"We, the people, as it says in our Constitution, are prepared to safeguard the unique choices and actions that brought this country back to life. We will always want to stay together, we will always be accountable to ourselves first, and we are not going to stop thinking big,” Kagame said, partly alluding to the recently approved revised Constitution.
Talking about last week’s referendum in which Rwandans overwhelmingly adopted the revised Constitution, the Head of State said Rwandans have shown their choice and that it’s up to public servants to keep doing what people want.
"What was the issue has been pretty much resolved. Our purpose here in this dialogue is simple: make sure our actions are guided by what Rwandans have expressed,” he said.
At the dialogue, officials are already talking about Vision 2050 as one that will be guided by choices that Rwandans have made over the last 21 years since the end of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
‘Work harder’
President Kagame urged other public servants to work harder to enrich Rwandans who deserve not only to survive but thrive.
"Rwandans have told us that we can do more and better, even faster. We don’t want to be a status-quo country or a status-quo people. Vision 2020 was about what we had to do in order to survive and regain our dignity but Vision 2050 has to be about the future we choose because we can and deserve it,” he said.
Panelists who spoke at the meeting, including Foreign Affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda Governance Board chief executive Anastase Shyaka, and Jean Damascène Bizimana, the executive secretary of the National Commission for the fight against Genocide, highlighted Rwanda’s bold choices, including unity of people, the use of technology to advance development, nurturing good relations with regional countries, and playing a role in peace-keeping abroad.
Prof. Shyaka said, going forward, leaders will need to increase efforts in resolving citizens’ problems, improving service delivery, and involving members of the civil society in nation building in the interests of all Rwandans.
Mushikiwabo lauded Rwanda’s policies on regional integration and immigration, explaining that the country has chosen to welcome people from other nations and encouraged Rwandans to work from abroad.
"It’s an important thing in the history of our country,” she said about the country’s progressive policies on regional integration and immigration.
Thousands of youths and other Rwandans also gathered at different locations in the country and participated in the dialogue via video-link from Petit Stade in Kigali, Bugesera in the Eastern Province, Burera in the Northern Province, and Gisagara in the Southern Province.
Most of the citizens’ interventions focused on lauding the government’s policies such as the one-cow-per-poor family, access to healthcare and education, as well as water and electricity schemes but they also tasked the government to do more to address certain issues such as new cases of malaria.
The dialogue’s proceedings are streamed live on umushyikirano.gov.rw and on twitter using the Hashtag #Umushyikirano.
The meeting ends today with a discussion about how to scale up citizens’ participation and innovation for development, more feedback from citizens, as well as drawing resolutions from the dialogue.
Provided for by the Constitution and taking place every year, Umushyikirano is a Rwandan home-grown initiative which offers a forum, where the President, along with other national leaders as well as ordinary citizens, debate issues relating to the state of the nation, the state of local government and national unity.