Kigali, 9 September 2016
President Kagame today presided over the signing in of Imihigo (performance contracts) for 2016-2016 by Ministers, Governors and Districts Mayors. During the event, a report on district performance during the 2015/2016 Fiscal Year was also presented by the Prime Minister and the top three districts were recognized and awarded.
In his address President Kagame asked leaders to execute their duties with due diligence in order to develop Rwanda.
“The district rankings that were presented to us today show us many things, key among them being the aspect of leadership. The quality of leadership will always reflect on the performance of any institution. The issue of lack of collaboration and coordination between people themselves and institutions is an issue that continues to be persistent. You can’t call yourself a leader if you think you can work without collaborating with others.”
President Kagame pointed out that a leader should be able to evaluate him or herself by looking at how the lives of the people he or she leads have changed.
“The only measure we have to follow is the level of improvement of the lives of the people. When we talk about improving the living standards of public servants and avail to them tools of work, the ultimate goal is to aid them to work towards improving lives of the people. That is the context in which performers are awarded.”
President Kagame said that the performance contracts have provided Rwandan leaders that everything is possible and that there is no short cut to transformation.
Concerning some strong nations who have the false notion that developing nations can’t achieve progress or good governance unless they are infringing on freedoms, president Kagame pointed out that the most significant freedom was the freedom from want and freedom to self determination.