Paul Kagame | Kagame tells officials: “Discuss issues instead of each other”

President Kagame addressing the 9th Leadership Retreat, Gako, Bugesera (Photo: PPU)

President Paul Kagame in a speech closing the 9^th Leadership Retreat has urged officials to desist from wasting time on “pettiness” and focus on discussing issues which affect the common Rwandan.

“Let us not talk about each other, let us talk about issues and this way, our targets will easily be achieved,” he said March 06. “We should focus and address real issues and desist from dwelling on pettiness.”

In a probable reference to media rights, Kagame also said officials should work to solve the weakness that have been exposed, instead of hunting for whoever revealed the problem.

“When we have not fulfilled our promises and are required to account for things we are supposed to account for, we should not start looking for whoever might have exposed our weaknesses,” said the President.

“The issue should not be who exposed the weakness but the weakness itself and how to find corrective measures.”

Read full speech below:

SPEECH BY H.E. PRESIDENT PAUL KAGAME AT THE CLOSING OF THE 9TH LEADERSHIP RETREAT

• Senior Leaders of our nation,
• Heads of our high institutions,
• Ministers,
• Parliamentary representatives,
• Heads of security and defense institutions,
• Ambassadors,
• Senior leaders of the different agencies;
• And our international friends who are here to support our country.

I want to thank you all for a very productive period that we have been here for this retreat. I believe that what we have done in the last few days have met expectations. I think we have had a good retreat.

Every retreat has been better than the previous one. We have seen progress after progress for the last years; and the 9^th today reflects that progress. I have read in a report where an assessment says that past retreats did not achieve much and therefore a waste of time, and I don’t agree with this. The mere fact that there was a thought about holding a retreat in itself is an achievement.

Having said that, I wish also to remind us all that there are things we need to work hard on; you will agree with me that there are problems that we have continued to identify at every retreat that keep coming back. In some areas, there has been little progress or no progress at all.

These are the few areas that I want to come back to;

We are not going to continue making progress if we do not master how to manage a number of processes that we are involved in as we go about our responsibilities and work. There is need for us to manage these processes as they should be managed. This will involve coordination of people, institutions and different levels. We must be able to speak to each other for the purpose of putting our energies, resources and thinking together so that we can make a breakthrough on some of the problems that continue to hinder the progress of our development. We should also understand the cost of not managing these processes properly. We should understand the cost of not communicating with each other, of not working together and lack of coordination – it’s a huge cost.

We are all working for a common goal and we have one purpose. We may be many individuals, we may be many institutions, many levels and come from different backgrounds and different responsibilities but we all converge on one purpose; that of fulfilling the purpose of the development of our people and country. We may have issues, different opinions and ideologies, but we need to harness all that and emerge winners for our nation’s development.

The main failure is for us to fail to tell the difference between us as individuals and the institutions we serve. Sometimes we are not able to draw the line and end up confusing individuals with institutions. This is where general and national interests are dependent on individual whims irrespective of the obligations of the institutions individuals are supposed to serve. We should maintain the understanding that institutions are above all of us as individuals. This is absolutely critical.

Mistakes are made because in the whole process of thinking about what we have to do, we end up choosing to do what falls in line with our individual interests instead of the broader demands of our country and people. That’s why some of us can afford the luxury of forgetting to do things that under normal circumstances we are not supposed to forget. Our people would be served better if we did not have to keep repeating and reminding each other about some issues. Why don’t we implement what we discuss in retreats and other forums, yet we seem to understand them quite perfectly? This is closely linked to the pathetic situation that our country is in. We all need to do what we are supposed to do if things are going to move forward.

But let it not be understood as if I am saying that something is terribly wrong; it’s only in a certain context. Looking at where we have come from and where we are now, we all have done quite a decent job. But because of the urgency of our situation to move forward, I have to keep emphasizing some issues.

When we have not fulfilled our promises and are required to account for things we are supposed to account for, we should not start looking for whoever might have exposed our weaknesses. The issue should not be who exposed the weakness but the weakness itself and how to find corrective measures. We should focus and address real issues and desist from dwelling on pettiness. Let us not talk about each other, let us talk about issues and this way, our targets will easily be achieved.

Once again I want to thank you for the good work and for promising that there will be improvements. I also sincerely thank our friends who have come from all over the world, from different backgrounds and institutions and have accepted to suffer with us as we try to write a good story that Rwandans deserve. As we leave here we should not remove our combat gear; instead we should tighten our boots ready to confront the challenges that remain.

Thanks you and have a good evening.

Hard at work: More than 250 senior officials of government and private sector attended the three-day annual event (Photo: PPU)