Give me discipline and not oil or diamonds

I will start on a light note. A Kenyan colleague who attended the opening session of this week’s Leadership Retreat was astonished by choice of venue for this important forum.All along, as she drove to Gako, her expectation of this place was that of a major Word -Class Holiday Resort, probably stretching along some major water mass or at least, sandwiched between breathtaking geographical landmarks.Little did she know that she was headed to a military Garrison, which, thanks to the retreat had just gotten a face-lift. Her facial expression upon alighting from the bus told it all and the first question she asked was, “is this our final destination?’When I told her this was the venue for the retreat, she added, “if it were in Kenya, you would never think of bringing an MP to such a place…at times even a five star resort is not ideal enough…”This Kenyan journalist was not the only one surprised. While engaging another visiting journalist later in the day, he wondered how such a forum can put aside politicking and concentrate on real issues that affect the day-to-day lives of the common person. To him, such retreats, especially in his country, are forums for settling political scores or cooling political tempers or negotiating with errant politicians to toe the party line. Issues of good governance and socio-economic programmes are usually relegated to AOB.And this is what brings out the stark difference with Rwanda. Whereas a retreat in some of our neighbors is like a political theater parked with political drama or largely a crisis management forum, in Rwanda, the annual Leadership Retreat is a moment for serious accountability and deep reflections on Rwanda’s future.At this forum, the setting and atmosphere is similar to a corporate boardroom where the Commander-In-Chief takes on the role of a results-hungry CEO.The lingua franca switches from the usual bureaucratic terminologies common in public offices, of words like policy, plans, frameworks, programmes and long-term visions to the lingua in the corporate world of results, targets, timelines, brands and strategic positioning.No politics or debates, simply because debating is not what brings food to the table of the common man. The demand across board is for one thing... results. In fact, if there are no results to show, you are better of feigning sickness and dodging or simply doing the gentleman honor of accepting failure and taking responsibility. There’s one reason to explain why empty politicking is not in Rwanda’s political diction. Rwanda may not have Oil, Gold, Diamond, Timber or any major natural resource. What Rwanda has today and, which probably is the most important asset is discipline.You may have all these natural resources to drive your economy but without discipline, they are as useless as a bicycle without wheels. Instead of bringing prosperity, they bring endemic poverty, hunger and misery. The examples on our continent are so many.Discipline has brought accountability for the little resources we have. It has ensured that officials keep on their toes, delivery exceptionally well on areas that are key for growth. That is why, even with great results indicating a slash in poverty levels by 12 percent over a period of 5 years, this year’s retreat was not a forum for glory singing or general appeasement. It was about demand for results and the feeling one gets is that Rwanda’s appetite for results is simply insatiable. The more the progress, the greater the hunger for more. Again, speaking of hunger, the choice of venue for this year’s retreat was also symbolic in its own way. For many decades, Bugesera district was the epicenter of misery, hunger and death. The area was semi-arid, chronically unproductive and its people were a symbol of human suffering that characterised this nation for decades. However, in less than 10 years, Bugesera is today a bread basket – one where hunger has been replaced with a successful story of agricultural productivity and where the semi-arid conditions have been replaced with endless rains. Bugesera presents one of the best testimonies of the miraculous recovery of this country.Yet this miracle is different from the biblical one. It’s a miracle rooted in Rwanda’s new culture of performance, accountability and a high appetite for results guided by discipline in whatever is done.Some will always confuse this demand for accountability or discipline as authoritarianism and, indeed, many have used it as tool to criticize the leadership of President Kagame. But for us, in Rwanda, we have begun to appreciate it as our own version of Gold and Diamond. We see it as the oil running our engines of growth and leading this nation to the middle income status it aspires to be. What will happen if we keep these virtues and at the same time discover these hidden resources? Rwanda will surely be the paradise we always sing about. On twitter @aasiimweBlog: aasiimwe.wordpress.com

Opinions

Give me discipline and not oil or diamonds