RWANDA’S steady progress seems to have rubbed people the wrong way that they can no longer hold themselves back. They seem to have run out of ammunition that they will now use anything as a weapon. The latest is a publication in the Financial Times (FT) that uses the usual culprits as high-value sources. The article gives Rwanda too much credit when it claims that it has been taking to World Bank for a ride for many years. FT doesn’t do itself much justice when it relies on Rwandan dissidents and others very well known for their anti-Rwanda position as its trusted sources. Let us, for one moment, join FT’s logic that Rwanda cooks its books and serves them to the World Bank; either the bank is administered by morons and the Rwandan system is manned by geniuses who only need to wave the magic wand and the bank goes to sleep. If it has that hold over the World Bank, does it hold the same over the IMF and credit rating agencies such as Standard and Poor’s, Fitch or Moody’s? As fate has it, whenever fantasies such as the one published in FT are thrown up in the open, the truth smacks them right in the face; and it must be very painful. That is what happened, when, no sooner had FT put out its childish piece than Standard and Poor’s published its latest ratings. It upgraded Rwanda’s status from “B” to “B+” thereby dispelling the prophets of doom. If Rwanda manipulated those figures and whitewashed the results, hats off!
