Kigali, 22 August 2011
President Kagame today addressed more than four hundred sector Executive Secretaries who gathered at Petit Stade after concluding Itorero training in Musanze. In his address, President Kagame said that it was the responsibility of every leader to change their mindsets in order to make better delivery to the people they serve. The President said that formal education alone cannot stop leaders from becoming selfish and greedy, which is why Itorero was created to instill values enshrined in the Rwandan culture.
He said: “We have to change our mindsets as leaders and the mindsets of the people we lead. Greed should be shunned if we are to become one people and work as one team to achieve one vision. A good team is composed of right thinking people.”
President Kagame emphasized that Rwandan people deserve value for money and therefore should be involved at every stage. “A good leader should listen to people’s voices about their performance, not their own assessment of their performance because if they go by their own assessment, they always fail to see the real picture. Rwanda is firm because leaders listen to their people and the foundation of its gains is held intact by the people.”
President Kagame told the local leaders that when people work as a team they always win, and called upon them to have a common vision, objective so that they can deliver to the people as a team. “When you take what belongs to everyone and make it your own, it ceases to belong to the people. You should not play with the values of one people, one nation – contribute to it instead, because you also stand to benefit.”
Listen to speech: http://paulkagame.tv/podcast/?p=episode&name=2011-08-22_kagame.mp3