Rwanda is rarely out of the news. You would think the country goes out of its way to court attention. It is probably the other way round: the world cannot take its eyes off Rwanda and will not stop commenting on what happens here.
Some of what is said is good and valuable, and worth taking note of. Some is inconsequential and can safely be ignored and forgotten. A lot of it is utter rubbish and is best discarded. But all of it, whether it denies or recognises it, is about Rwanda’s progress.
There is no doubt that Rwanda has made reasonable progress given its recent history and the supposed lack of resources. So well indeed that some find it difficult to believe and even refuse to accept the fact.
How, they ask, can such a country, ravaged by division, war and genocide that for all intents and purposes destroyed it pick itself up, rebuild and become a model performer on nearly every count, and have its counsel much sought after across the world?
It is not normal, they conclude. There can’t be that much progress and if there is, something sinister must be behind it. Oh yes, we know it and go on to recite a litany of alleged misdeeds. The country is a police state. The president is an autocrat and tightly controls everything. There is no freedom in the country. Dissent is not permitted. No one is allowed to speak. They regularly doctor their economic figures.
Even supposing all this was true, their eureka moment rings hollow and insincere. How, pray, does this translate into what is evident on the ground, the visible change in citizens’ lives? If dictatorship produces results such as these, then it must have been wrongly defined. If not, it is clearly not applicable in this case.
No one should really look far for who or what is responsible for Rwanda’s progress. It is leadership with a clear vision and strategies to attain it. It is in the changing mindset of Rwandans.
One has only to be at any government meeting, or that of the RPF, the party that has been driving change in the country for the past twenty-seven years, or the president’s meetings with citizens to recognise this.
The message is constant and insistent. Make the search for solutions to national challenges the primary concern. Processes (read bureaucratic practices) for doing so are only the means, never the goal, and should not take up all the time.
Following from that is insistence on results. Processes and procedures must lead to results. There must be evidence that we have moved from point A to point B and the way to point C and beyond is clear.
This search often requires doing things differently, sometimes going against tradition or practices elsewhere. There is hardly a meeting where you don’t hear these exhortations: we must use unconventional or unorthodox means to solve our problems; that’s what will drive the country forward. Rwanda’s challenges are unique and require unique solutions, not the copy and paste variety.
It is not a rhetorical fad but a hard-nosed appreciation of Rwanda’s unique circumstances and practical ways of dealing with them.
But there is another practical reason for this. Insistence on the unconventional or exceptional guards against the danger of getting stuck in the rut of routine and not looking for what actually works. Routine blunts the mind and kills initiative, creativity and innovation.
Results, however, are not just consequences of officials’ actions that we only wait to see happen or favours that may be thrown our way whenever it pleases them. They must be demanded by and of managers at every level, and by citizens as well.
Now, no one demands solutions and results more than President Paul Kagame - of himself, his government and of Rwandans in general. He will, at every opportunity, urge Rwandans to demand of him and his government the same results that raise their quality of life.
To outsiders and those that regard leadership as a privilege and not a responsibility, he may come across as very demanding, driving people hard, and intolerant. If this is what they interpret as autocracy, they have got it all wrong.
There is some more insistence, this time on changing attitudes, developing a doer and winner mindset. President Kagame is always urging Rwandans to aim for the best, to never settle for second best, to reject the mediocre, in terms of goals, results as well as effort.
That can only come from having the belief that we have the ability to achieve what we set our minds to.
Again, for those who decree that we should not have any ambitions except what they set for us, this may appear too uppity and arrogant, and so must be put down.
Finally, all achievement in Rwanda is collective, attributable to the efforts of all. Of course, there are individuals behind them. Some might even do more than others, but it is no more than their duty and should therefore not expect special status.
And although leaders answer for more, there are no Tsars. No sacred cows. No one stands taller than the rest. None is indispensable. Everyone matters.
This is another thing outsiders don’t or refuse to understand about this country. They are used to officials in other places arrogating to themselves certain functions and powers of the state and becoming untouchable. When they don’t see the same here, then something must be wrong; they see an iron fist behind that.
They are wrong again. It is just our way. This country belongs to all its citizens; they all have equal rights and responsibilities and, depending on their specific duties, equally answerable. That’s partly explains Rwanda’s progress up to this point.
The views expressed in this article are of the writer.