Yesterday, Rwandans celebrated the National Harvest Day (Umuganura). The Minister of Sports and Culture, Julienne Uwacu, presided over the main celebrations in Nyanza District where she urged Rwandans to consolidate the current gains and work harder towards self reliance.

For Rwandans, the event was a deserved holiday to celebrate the achievements the country has registered over the past one year. In ancient Rwanda, Umuganura was an annual traditional feast of first harvest that was widely observed to thank God for the good harvest and to rally citizens to work harder.

However, in modern Rwanda, Umuganura has taken on a wider dimension. It is more than just the traditional first crop harvest. It also includes the yields from all aspects of national development that Rwanda has achieved.

Indeed, this year’s National Harvest Day was special and rightly so for Rwandans to celebrate because in the last one year the country has registered several achievements. The climax of these achievements was the national election which saw the return of President Paul Kagame as head of state after a successful democratic process.

It is because of President Kagame’s leadership that Rwandans yesterday had reason to celebrate the good harvest of Umuganura in agriculture, education, the economy, good governance and poverty reduction among others.

However, the celebration should also be used as a reminder to every citizen that the journey to where we want to be is still long, but we are on the right track.

We must aim for a better and bigger harvest for the next Umuganura. To achieve this, every citizen must play their role to ensure that the yields of the next Umuganura are more than what we celebrated yesterday. With a visionary leadership and concerted efforts from every citizen, nothing will stop us. Let’s get back to work.