Now that the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has released a provisional list of presidential and parliamentary aspirants (three presidential and 459 parliamentary candidates respectively), I believe it is high time for us, all Rwandans, to have a very serious conversation about the kind of leaders we not only want but actually need.
Political leadership in Rwanda isn’t a popularity contest, or at least shouldn’t be.
Neither should it be about ‘sharing the national cake’. Nor should it be about rewarding the most shameless, demagogic, or stirring.
It should, or must, be about elevating Rwanda beyond history, geographical challenges, and economic realities. We’ve given ourselves the target of becoming an upper middle-income country by 2035, with every Rwandan earning at least $4,466 per year.
As of 2023, Rwandans were earning a little over $1,000. So, what we are saying is that in a space of 11 years, the income of the average Rwandan should have gone up almost four and a half times.
To reach that target, Rwanda’s economy will need to register double-digit GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth for almost a decade.
As the Chinese and other Asian Tigers have shown us, such growth rates aren’t impossible. However, they are extremely difficult.
Although Rwanda has never experienced double-digit growth over an entire year, we have experienced it on a quarterly basis. What that proves is that we have it within us to hit the targets we’ve given ourselves.
What we don’t have, though, is a lot of wiggle room. Torrential rains, extremely dry conditions, regional crises, conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, and the vagaries of Western politics all have the ability to knock us backward and stop us from hitting our development goals.
With all those threats in mind, what we cannot afford to do, as Rwandans, is have political leaders who aren’t up to the task.
Two things can be true at the same time; we can (and should) have an electoral system that allows all and sundry to throw their hat in the political ring. On the other hand, what OUR electoral system should (or better yet, must) encompass is THE BEST OF US.
Not political amateurs with little understanding of statecraft and economics. Not people who think that we shall build the country’s wealth off the backs of our subsistence farmers. Not people who think that certain technology and innovation are too ‘high-end’ for us.
We cannot have, as leaders, people who think that swallowing ‘wholesale’ the remedies from development partners is a good idea. And finally, we cannot have leaders who are comfortable being where we are at present. Let me explain.
Standards of living are better today than at any time in our history. Not only do we have more money in our pocket than ever before, we live longer than any past generation of Rwandans. We have some nice sports facilities, a few five-star hotels, and clean streets.
We have a nascent space agency and a few factories that process some of the products that our farmers produce. And most importantly, we have a political system that ensures a level of stability and national cohesion that is the envy of more than a few nations.
However, despite all these positive things, in the larger scheme of things, we are nowhere. We still are among the poorest nations in the world. We have a GDP of $14.1 billion. In contrast, Benin’s GDP was $17.4 billion in 2022, and North Korea’s GDP was around $48.3 billion in 2023 (despite all its challenges).
In conclusion, what we need from our political leaders are solutions for the very real challenges that we have to hurdle to become the country we desire. These solutions are not only extremely hard to come up with; their implementation is harder still, especially due to all the structural and geographical challenges we have.
Therefore, forgive me if I am unimpressed by some of the shenanigans I’ve been witnessing because, as a parent, I don’t believe that the lives of my children are a political game to be ‘played’ around with.
I simply will not allow their future well-being to be left in the hands of rich brats, people with poor mental health, sectarian demagogues, and potential political leaders who cannot think of a future past their present-day realities.
So, dear aspiring political leaders, before you throw your hats in the ring, ask yourself, "What do I actually offer to Rwandans? Putting my ego aside, do I have the CV to actually apply for this job?”
The author is a socio-political commentator