Servant leadership: We still have a lot to learn

Editor,Reference is made to Joseph Rwagatare’s article, “Rwandans cement concept of servant leadership” (The New Times, December 17).Isn’t it a little disingenuous to suggest that Rwanda’s politicians are a world apart from the regular breed of politicians when each year we need a national dialogue, which, to the casual observer, serves to finally, after 12 months, require our leaders to listen to our complaints?If you listen carefully, it appears that all year long, some of our leaders brush off the common man’s issues till December when they are supposed to come face to face with the President. Fortunately for us, we have a President who will not allow for the common man’s concerns to be waved off.So I suppose we could say the President has cemented the concept of servant leadership and avoid the sweeping, “Rwandans”.Bosco, Kigali********************Bosco has articulated my very thoughts. At various Rwanda Day forums or in discussions with friends, one often hears many non-Rwandan Africans express the fervent wish Rwandans would lend them President Paul Kagame, if only for a short time, to help put their own countries’ governance on the right track.I, too, frequently daydream we could clone him so that we could put more like him at the helm of some of our core government services, local administrations and institutions in charge of critical infrastructure services.Service delivery to citizens would be immeasurably improved. Alas, that is just a dream.Yes, Rwanda has been able than most to extract the biggest bang from its meager resources and move far from a very low starting base. But much more could have been achieved were all public officials, our private sector and every individual Rwandan citizen pulling together in the same direction at their maximum capacity.I know a lot of people who seem to be working a lot, who really put in a lot of hours at the office, but we need to work not only very long hours, we also need to work smarter and, collectively, in a more coherent manner.As the African proverb says, if you want to go far, go together.Mwene Kalinda, Kigali

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Servant leadership: We still have a lot to learn