By Eugene Nyagahene*
of August 2024, the curtain has fallen! At the end of a well-conducted electoral campaign entirely financed by the sons of this country, it’s time for a new act! Let’s get to work!The swearing-in of elected officials was conducted at a fast pace, and the outgoing government was almost entirely re-elected. The team is fully assembled to pursue the objectives of Vision 2050.
What does this mean?
A routine work that resumes after this campaign break? For the detractors of the dazzling success of this country since the year zero (1994), this is undoubtedly it. But for those who believed in a better future, starting with the Rwandans themselves as well as the friends of Rwanda and other foreign investors who bet on this country, this new era augurs promising tomorrows.
To better understand it, we must look back at what allowed Rwanda to rise from its ashes. And what it could become in the next two decades.
Flashback to 1994 : a socially and economically ruined country: 1 million people
murdered, 250 thousand women raped, 2 to 3 million people taken refuge in the DRC and all the country’s infrastructure completely destroyed.
Fast forward 2024 : the trajectory has not been a long quiet river. Far from it. Despite all the challenges that one can imagine, this country is today spoken of in glowing terms despite some cacophonies, and this, in all areas, especially those where it was not expected: from high-end tourism, to sponsorship of the most prestigious sporting events such as the English league to the announced Formula 1, via the NBA. Economic performances have become an annual routine.
The fruit of the hard work of an entire people and its leader
Is it a miracle? No, not at all!
What Rwanda has become now and plans to become soon is neither a coincidence nor a happy accident of history. It is simply the fruit of the hard work of an entire people and its leader, all very disciplined. An essential asset for the success of any large-scale project.
The end of the Cold War in the early 199
0s was for some countries including Rwanda, an opportunity to rethink another future outside of any ideology imported from elsewhere. We therefore delved into our culture, and updated philosophical concepts and other social notions that were the foundation of traditional Rwandan society for centuries. For example, Agacaca for justice, Agaciro and Ubupfura in social and diplomatic relations, Ubudehe for our concerted development, Ubutwari to stimulate valiant soldiers, Ubuntu for sharing values ??with other African countries in need, and I could go on and on. As for the adverb Kirazira, it alone constitutes a guide to all the cultural values ??of Rwanda.
Without recourse to these values, it is a safe bet that Rwanda would never have become what it is. No reconciliation would have been possible, no development plan worthy of the name would ever have been carried out.
Rwanda has thus created its own good governance, displayed an allergic intolerance to corruption and unfailing respect for laws and rules.
Kiga
li’s Vision 2050, named “Kigali Yacu!” (“Our Kigali!”), aims to transform the capital into an urban centre of excellence for 3.8 million people and 1.8 million jobs by 2050. @City of Kigali
What seemed impossible in the year zero became reality in thirty years, thanks to a clever mix of these ancestral values ??with modernity. Rwanda has thus created its own good governance, displayed an allergic intolerance to corruption and an unwavering respect for laws and rules (strict timing, mutual trust, respect for the given word, etc.).
This cocktail of elements drawn from our roots therefore explains the resilience of this country and its success in many areas.
As a reminder, the same was true of China’s unwavering rise on the world stage in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The awakening and meteoric rise of this giant to whom we owe the compass, gunpowder, paper and printing was only a matter of time. Industrious as they were, they remained so throughout a century of colonization.
For tomorrow, Rwanda w
ill have to fight hard to first stabilize its achievements
Have we reached our destination? No. Far from it.
Today, for tomorrow, Rwanda will have to fight hard to first stabilize its achievements, then focus on accelerated training of its children in future innovations and strengthen its diplomatic capacities in order to access international markets.
The capital Kigali and other cities in Rwanda have become so cosmopolitan that a cultural mix is ??taking place in this country. You only have to go out into the street to see it. This significant asset will certainly be a catalyst in our quest for development.
At this precise moment when the geopolitical cards of the whole world are being refolded, a strategic financial repositioning of the country is to be considered. Rwanda has so many assets to play a key role in the ecological transition, taming renewable energies, and the transformation of critical minerals so abundant in the southern hemisphere of the African continent. Nothing will justify Africa con
tinuing to export its minerals to Malaysia and China for processing. An attractive environment is being established right here in several other key sectors such as education, health, finance and others.
‘An open-air laboratory for any convinced Pan-Africanist’
A model for other African countries? Probably yes!
There have never been any secrets for anyone wishing to be inspired by the Rwandan model. And there will not be any. As proof, I want to point out that it is the only African country where one can go without a visa as an African. The country has become an open-air laboratory intended for any convinced pan-Africanist. The African leaders of yesterday thought of and created African unity in 1963 (OAU), with mixed success. It is still possible to think of the African economic union today. From West Africa via the Sahel to the South West of the continent via Rwanda. The South-South cooperation envisaged for decades would then become a reality.
*Eugène Nyagahene is the founder of the Tele 10 group, an e
conomist and an entrepreneur for over forty years in several fields such as agriculture, technology, finance, tourism and many others.
Source: Africa News Agency