I have covered the opening sessions of Rwanda’s annual Leadership Retreats from their early years. For those unfamiliar with these meetings, locally known as Umwiherero, they are annual forums that bring together top public officials. Of recent, representatives of the private sector and civil society as well as district mayors have come on board.
A week ago, I was invited to the opening session of the 9th Leadership Retreat taking place at the Rwanda Military Academy in Gako, Bugesera District.
Because I had not attended the last two or three retreats, I was not sure they were as lively and interesting (from a journalist’s perspective) as the ones I had covered before.
On the bus ride through the splendid lush and beauty of a resurgent Bugesera, with the other invited journalists, I kept wondering what to expect this time round.
For the first time, the leaders were not going to spend five days in the comfort of Akagera Game Lodge or Lake Kivu Serena – rather they were going to think harder and tighten the loose nuts in a military barracks! “Someone must have sensed that every saved coin can help make a difference in the life of a citizen tucked away somewhere in this country,” I thought to myself.
When we finally arrived, we went through the routine security checks, and later entered the modest meeting hall. The room was packed with excited but relaxed officials. The block had been given a facelift days ahead of the retreat, I later learned.
I was tempted to believe that perhaps the ninth retreat was likely to concentrate more on the incredible achievements the government had registered over the last few years, with declared commitments to stay the course and perhaps fix a few things here and there.
I thought that, coming just weeks after it had been announced that as many as a million Rwandans (12 per cent of the population) had jumped the poverty line and that the country had nearly achieved its targets under the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS I), with a year to spare, as well as a general robust economic performance in a difficult year for many countries, including those in the region, it was only obvious that the mood was going to be celebratory.
A quick perusal through the ‘Concept Note’ that was distributed in the room showed that the organisers had sought to tie the retreat around the impressive national statistics as shown in the 2010 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the third Household Living Conditions Survey (EIV3), although there was an indication they were keen on entrenching progress at the grassroots, with the unprecedented participation of district mayors.
It did not take long before I realised I was wrong. When President Paul Kagame took to the floor, his guileless talk was almost reminiscent of the statements he made in the same gatherings before the launch of the EDPRS I (in 2008), which has since changed Rwanda in many aspects. He was as emphatic and demanding with a strong conviction that his government can bring about much more results.
His speech concentrated on areas the government had failed to meet the expectations (its own targets, I must add). Yet he did not attempt to fault particular individuals, rather presenting the unachieved targets as a collective failure, even blaming himself at one point, saying he should have done better to ensure the country adequately addressed its energy challenges.
Listening to his speech, you would be forgiven to think this was a country that had registered failure in the recent past – not one that had delivered a more than 8 per cent growth rate, against all odds, last year, and achieved food security levels. You would not believe this is a country that had kept up its reputation as a top global ‘Doing Business’ reformer, a ‘clean country’ on a continent ridden with corruption, and one whose judicial system has increasingly won international community’s confidence with regard to conducting fair and transparent trials, with more countries now willing to extradite or deport suspects to Kigali, to mention but a few.
The President hardly mentioned any of these glowing achievements, rather pushing his Cabinet and other officials to go extra mile, tap into every capacity and resource at their disposal, with a view of changing the living standards for the Rwandan people.
While I’ll not delve into the other proceedings that were held in camera (although I was lucky to follow some of them), the President’s speech and tone set a new mood and a renewed sense of urgency for the Ninth Leadership Retreat. Under Kagame, Rwandans will be rest assured of a truly hard-working government, one that has no time to celebrate achievements, rather using them as a motivation to constantly raise the bar.
