On December 11th 2011, President Paul Kagame was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Kampala, Uganda for his overt and deliberate empowerment of young people as custodians of the future of Rwanda and Africa. Awel Uwihanganye, Secretary General of the Uganda Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is the Founding Director of the Young achievers awards. He spoke to SundayTimes’ Gashegu Muramira on why the President was chosen for this award, and below are the
excerpts;

SundayTimes: First of all what do you mean by the young achievers awards, what does it stand for and what are you trying to achieve?

Uwihanganye: The awards were established to recognise, reward and encourage young entrepreneurs and leaders who are making tremendous contributions in improving their own economic situation and those championing social change for good. Our main focus is to encourage and promote youth innovation and enterprise as a way of addressing the economic and leadership challenges that our generation faces. We need to create wealth, and find opportunity outside the traditional job market and at the same time ensure our politics, governance issues are geared towards genuine empowerment of our people.

SundayTimes: You presented President Paul Kagame with the Lifetime achievement award, how was that arrived at?

Uwihanganye: President Kagame as a choice for the lifetime achievement award was the easy part, getting him to attend and receive it in person was the challenge. The lifetime achievement award is presented to eminent persons who are an inspiration to the youth, and have made enormous contributions to society and nation. We presented the Award in recognition of his exemplary leadership, continued inspiration to the youth of Rwanda and Africa, and his unwavering faith in the young generation as the custodians of the destiny of the continent; as exemplified in his continued empowerment of the Rwandan youth with responsibility and mentorship at all levels of government and the private sector. But also the Award recognizes his overt and elaborate effort to champion a culture of service, accountability and social responsibility for nation and continent.

SundayTimes: You have always described President Kagame as an exemplary leader in a part of the world where good leadership is a rare commodity, what do you mean by this?

Uwihanganye: President Paul Kagame is known for his overt support for the youth. He works with young people and has entrusted responsibility to the youth at various levels of public responsibility in many government offices. When you interface with public sector from outside Rwanda, you are very much challenged and inspired by the confidence President Kagame has in the young generation.
Africa needs leaders such as President Kagame to get its people out of poverty and to play a meaningful role in global discussions. We therefore believed President Kagame to be the inspiration we needed to share with Ugandan and African youth at the awards ceremony with the hope that the values he espouses can be emulated by future African leaders.                                                                     
President Paul Kagame stands out as an individual and as a leader, when we discussed the idea of inviting him, it was clear that we could not have anyone better, so we focused on ensuring that we succeeded in having him at the ceremony as our chief guest. We were just humbled that he agreed, and subsequently made time to attend the ceremony.

SundayTimes: What does it mean for the Young Achievers Awards to present such an award to a foreign head of state, and what do you hope to achieve by that?

Uwihanganye: Well, first and foremost the individual whether a head of state or not has to be deserving, and in this case President Kagame is more than deserving. Secondly to present it to a foreign head of state is strategic, especially one from the East African region because the challenges we face as a generation are more or less the same. Therefore we need to get our leaders to be speaking the same language on how best to create an economically empowered generation, given we are heading to regional integration. But also it sends a message to other leaders in Africa on what our thoughts and aspirations are. It is also important to be inspired by examples of exemplary leadership outside our own boarders
.
SundayTimes: Would you say that the Awards ceremony achieved the success you hoped for by having President Kagame there?

Uwihanganye: Oh yes it did, remember we had two Presidents in attendance, President Kagame and President Museveni. Also in attendance alongside other high profile guests was the Nnabagereka (Queen) of Buganda, who was the official host for the awards. Having such high profile guests raises the platform for advocating youth issues, and allows people to take us serious. His keynote speech was insightful and will remain reference for inspiration. Besides that, I think we had a good time; President Kagame seemed to have enjoyed himself with the humour from Pablo the co-emcee and also the inspiring stories of the young achievers themselves.

SundayTimes: In your magazine publication the Achiever, you referred to President Paul Kagame as the ‘visionary leader of our time’, what do you mean by that?

Uwihanganye: President Paul Kagame fulfils many of the aspirations of our generations, and more. He understands our language and reacts to it positively. As a leader he understands that at every stage of world history, each generation has a responsibility to advance the development of society through ability to inspire hope and creative imagination, innovation of new technologies, visionary and pragmatic leadership, revolutionary struggles for liberation and independence, scientific research in medicine, economic theories etc.
For our generation, particularly in Africa, solutions to the ever pressing challenges of poverty and uneven development of our society are economic and financial freedom of the African, emergence of visionary and pragmatic leaders who will drive the process of economic prosperity. In addition to promotion of ICT, and environmental conscious generation, he sure fits that description.

SundayTimes: What does this award mean for the youth in the region, in Africa, do you imagine the young achievers award has a future outside Uganda?

Uwihanganye: It means that the youth have an annual platform just to celebrate their innovation and excellence. It is something they can look forward to, and aspire to participate in. Though still in its infant stages, the award will continue to grow as an important platform for promotion of leadership, entrepreneurship and Africa’s successful stories. We need to showcase our own role models to serve as examples for generations to come. In the coming months we should be celebrating an East African young achievers awards. I think it would be very meaningful to establish a platform that will bring the regions successful business and leadership stories on one stage. I think it is a realisable dream.

SundayTimes: How do you think your next visit to Rwanda will be different from previous visits?

Uwihanganye: I have always felt a unique closeness to Rwanda and its people for obvious reasons of cultural identification, and of course drawn to it by its natural beauty, but I guess now the closeness is even more. I feel a greater sense of duty to work with others on something that will bring our people even more closer. The Ugandan and Rwandan relationship historically is very unique and special, so we need to ensure it is strengthened. It is good the two Presidents are leading us in the right direction.

SundayTimes: As the organiser you met President Paul Kagame in private, what were your personal impressions of him?

Uwihanganye: Oh my (sighs), first I was impressed with the efficiency of his immediate staff and attention to detail. I did not know much personal stuff about him so I was caught off guard, everything I though I wanted to say escaped me. It was quite uncomfortable for me because I really wanted to impress him but somehow I just could not bring myself to say all the things I wanted to say. It was like being star struck (laughs), I hope he knows he has this effect on people at least for the first time. I intend to make it up when I get another chance to meet him. He is also not a great conversationalist, so you better have intellectually stimulating issues to challenge him into a conversation. I do not think he is the small talk kind of person. But all in all it was an amazing opportunity; I had worked so hard to meet him, to host him, so you can say it was a dream come true.

SundayTimes: Any last thoughts?

Uwihanganye: Just to say that many of the youth in the region are encouraged by the leadership of President Kagame especially in promotion of issues important to us, even outside Rwanda, for leadership determines the direction society takes. As he put it in his keynote speech, ‘It is the responsibility of leaders and mentors to encourage the youth to work together, develop a can-do attitude, define their purpose and make the right choices. But equally, it is the young peoples’ responsibility to embrace this mentality and make it the basis of their actions.’  
The youth in Rwanda need to take advantage of this goodwill and support to establish themselves as entrepreneurs, innovators, and outstanding leaders so as to play a meaningful role in affairs of the country, continent and the world.

Ends