Africans must learn to appreciate efforts at passing the olive leaf

Why are they always meeting? What peace? Someone was commenting on the social media over a post that said regional leaders were in Luanda, Angola, for ICGLR summit that, among others, sought solutions to some of the conflicts maiming citizens in regional States.As the leaders exhausted their brains to find solutions to the problems in eastern DR Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic, in Kigali, a contingent of 850 RDF peacekeepers had ironed out the last details of their preparations ahead of deployment to CAR on an African Union mission. For this, a regional paper screamed with the headline; “Rwanda sends troops to South Sudan, CAR to repair image.”We are our own enemies indeed. We tend to play to the gallery; we tend to dance to the tunes of the Western agenda. From journalism to social media and back to our living rooms, all we do is berate our leaders and denigrate every effort they put across the table to ensure a progressive continent.The Western media feel vindicated whenever they read every article in African media debasing African leaders. We tend to tell stories for them, instead of writing stories for our people – we tell their story, instead of telling our own stories.A few months ago, our brothers and sisters in the border district of Rubavu felt the pinch of what it means to have an unstable neighbouring country. Mortars were dropping into the border district, killing some of the citizens. Those who have been to refugee camps know too well what it means to have pellets expended in South Sudan, eastern DR Congo and CAR.Rwanda has no image to repair; it has been rebuilding at enviable pace since the Genocide 20 years ago. The effort of this rebuilding is the peace and tranquility that now accords us the opportunity to spread the olive leaf across the borders. Our gallant RDF and Police peacekeepers across the world are not out there to prove anything, but rather, to hoist our flag high for peace and humanity.

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Africans must learn to appreciate efforts at passing the olive leaf