Gatsibo, 25 February 2017
President Kagame today opened the 14th National Leaders retreat taking place in Gabiro from today, 25 February until 2nd March.
During his opening speech, President Kagame noted that the purpose of the retreat was to evaluate what has been done and plan to do even better.
“I want to thank both the leaders and the people for what has been achieved because no achievement would have been registered without leaders and citizens working hand in hand. Although achieving what we want and reaching where we want to be may prove difficult, we have an ambition that demands us to go forward. That ambition that keeps pushing us to question why it had to be us to go through the kind of history we went through.”
Asking the leaders to have the motivation to work and talk to Each other towards the country’s goals, President Kagame said:
“Our tragic history means that we cannot move at the same pace as others. We are trying to cover an extremely huge deficit. We need ambition, sense of urgency and a dignified life. Our primary task is to match our ambitions with our deeds, our activities and what we expect to be the outcomes. You can’t have ambition and the desire to leave our history far behind us and at same time behave as if you can take your time and as if you can afford to have a sense of entitlement. What are you entitled to? And who owes it to you in a situation like ours? If you want to stand out on your own and feel more important than others, you are simply destroying the cause that pulls all of us together as a nation. You may be more knowledgeable than everyone in the room but you need to have your heart in the right place. To use your skills, you need to have your heart in the right place to use it for the benefit of this country and the people who have suffered.”
President Kagame pointed out that if leaders would sit together and talk, all their views would be incorporated and results would be far much greater. But that if some leaders decided to step away from the rest, they cut down the magnitude of the results.
“We must work together. Coordination and communication is essential. Working alone you cannot achieve much; you have to talk to each other. We should use our heads and our hearts. How can we stay the same yet this is the 14th retreat? There has to be change. I am hoping that we came here settled in our minds that we can do serious business and reboot ourselves to do what the people of Rwanda expect from us.”
Earlier in the morning, President Kagame joined residents of Kabarore sector, Simbwa cell for the monthly Umuganda where the foundation of a new primary school was laid.