Kigali, 19 October 2012
President Kagame has asked Rwandan youth to be leaders today because it is never too early for one to take the responsibility of developing their country. Speaking at the Amahoro indoor stadium, Petit Statde, where he met and interacted with over 2000 university students today President Kagame used the analogy of the horse and the horse rider, urging Rwanda youth to aim high and take full control of their destiny.
“Africans have been made the horses for long. It is about time we changed this and became the horse riders. Why would you, the young people of our country accept someone your age, or older, from somewhere else come here to tell you what is and is not good for you? You should take charge, control your destiny and be agents of change. Why would you accept to be a second class global citizen when you are as good as anyone else?”
President Kagame told the students that it’s not enough say good things because what matters is what one does and how well they execute them:
“You have to reject people who want to decide for you. As a society, we have our own imperfections just like any other society in the world. Now, if someone else from another society brings their own imperfections and add them to your, this will complicate things because this way, you will end up having double imperfections to deal with. When you let other people solve your problems, the solution will not be sustainable. When you want to find a solution for something, you have to understand the problem first and define it.”
President Kagame told the youth that he does not expect the leader who will come after him to be exactly like him, but one who take Rwanda in the same direction and perform even better, pointing out that Rwanda is like a vehicle that has no reverse gear.
On the issue of Congo and international justice, President Kagame told the student that in dealing with the problem of Congo, the international community is portraying a biased stand by using a selective approach:
“These days all you will hear is about M23 committing crimes of this or that. You will hear them eloquently condemning M23 for recruiting child soldiers but they will say nothing when the Congolese army kills children or when FDLR kills people and rapes in broad day light. They will take some people to the ICC and leave and leave the real criminals at large. The court is not used to serve justice but to serve interests as they use it to get those they don’t want out of the way.”
The inaugural Meet The President forum is a platform that is aimed at bringing together the president and the youth of the country to exchange ideas on formative issues as well as inspiring and encouraging them to take responsibility of the development of their country. The event which will now be held annually, ended in an interactive question and answer session where the President answered questions from students, including some foreign student studying in the country on Rwandan scholarships.