Okello Oculi writes that the participation of the people in taking decisions has been vital in Rwanda’s governance
Students at Anglican Girls Grammar School have, since 2004, been trained by Africa Vision 525 Initiative, an NGO, to annually simulate Assemblies of the African Union (AU). Rwanda’s ‘President Paul Kagame’ is currently represented.
She is, however, unhappy about Rwanda being a very small country; poor in mineral resources, and has a population of only 12 million: unlike vaster Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, or Tanzania.
The trainers have the challenge of building a profile for Rwanda which will win her heart and mind. The most powerful attribute may well be the ideas of the real Kagame himself. We tracked him to several arenas where he was pushed to make a case for his country and his own record of performance since the horrendous genocide which devastated Rwanda in 1994.
At the “Council of Foreign Relations’’ in Washington DC, Kagame faced his country’s tribal marks. He stated that his country’s lack of mineral resources, notably: oil, gas, diamond, gold, cobalt (which have high value in the international market), forced his government to focus of the People of Rwanda as the primary natural resource to be mined and developed. The genocide of 1994 had “a silver lining’’ in focusing their attention on the ordinary masses.
To extract maximum value from the population they had to receive “value addition’’ through education, and health care. There have also been intensive communications with them by establishing community dialogue sessions during which issues are debated until common goals are agreed on. He himself often addresses rallies of 150,000 people for up to five hours to win their support for a policy. Cleaning the environment for five hours each Saturday is an example.
When I visited Rwanda in 2012 (to conduct a study for the United Nations Economic Community for Africa, UNECA), I noted that a family was penalised for not taking a sick member to a clinic. Having lost about one million people in 1994, it was a matter of urgency to rebuild it. President Kagame told a Stanford University audience that 97 per cent of the people had health insurance. He told his Lagos audience that government could not allow peasant farmers to drink locally brewed millet beer from dawn to dusk and not grow food for the family.
The “participation’’ of the people in taking decisions, monitoring transparency and preventing corruption, has been vital in Rwanda’s governance. An element in it is having the “intelligence’’ to ensure that women are included in all aspects of development. Women constitute 53 per cent of Rwanda’s population. By ensuring their access to education to the highest level of their abilities, the country has achieved women winning 60 per cent of seats in parliament; holding 43 per cent of positions in the Judiciary, while climbing up in their share in the business arena.
“Participation’’ relies on, as well as, builds people’s sense of
“dignity’’ or belief in their ability to do what in the past they sat back and expected foreigners to do for them. As an illustration, he told ‘’Young Professionals’’ in Lagos that his government stopped foreign ‘’food aid’’ to Rwandans. To gain support for the ban he addressed village communities and asked them if it was foreigners who built their huts for them; planted and harvested their food crops for them; and why it was important to go back to their traditional notions of self-respect.
The campaign for food security was backed with supplying peasant farmers with fertilisers and improved seeds to ensure higher yields. Farmers paid for these items of support After selling their harvests. Government officials closely reviewed the use of these inputs. These measures won public support for self-reliance in food supply.
A member of the Kennedy School of Governance at Harvard University asked him about the “worst advice’’ he had been given. President Kagame pleaded that he be allowed to be polite, and worked his answer to rebuking ‘’foreign aid donors’’ who insist on dictating How and What their funds should be used. They showed no respect for the genius of local experts, political leaders and communities.
His comment recalled a disaster which hit British colonial officials who insisted on a gigantic “Groundnut Scheme’’ in Tanganyika without consulting local farmers. The fact that peasant farmers had not planted the crop on that land, was ignored. The 35 million Pounds Sterling project was a disastrous failure.
The “Young Professionals’’ in Lagos heard President Kagame report that 70 per cent of Rwanda’s population was below 30 years of age. He had insisted that they should give priority to their “lived experiences’’ and combine it with what they read in books. To a warm applause, he proclaimed that the youth in Rwanda and Nigeria must be responsible leaders for TODAY.
