Governor François Habitegeko has urged youths in Western Province to be more conscious of the choices they make in life as they define who they will be in the future and how they will be remembered.

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He made the call on January 31, at a concert to mark Heroes Day which is celebrated every February 1.

"A person’s legacy is defined by the choices they make. We are paying tribute to our heroes who made good choices. You should emulate them” Habitegeko said.

He added that "You should never give up once you encounter problems, be resilient, and get such problems solved since you have a country with a lot of opportunities.”

Retired Major David Rwabinumi, one of the 600 Rwanda Patriotic Army soldiers who were allowed in Kigali and accommodated at CND by 1993 (present parliamentary building) during the transitional government, was the guest speaker at the night gathering and shared memories of resilience with the youth.

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Rwabinumi is the person in a monument of a man operating a 12.7mm heavy machine gun on top of the parliamentary building. The gun was instrumental in keeping Juvenal Habarimana’s army at bay between April 7 and April 21. The weapon was one of the two higher caliber guns the RPA had been allowed to have at CND when they first deployed their protection force there on December 28, 1993.

Rwabinumi said that knowing what he was fighting for made him stronger and stayed courageous and never lost hope at any moment of the war.

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"I kept fighting not because I am fearless but because I clearly understood the cause we were fighting for,” he said.

Pacifique Ufitinema, 19, and Jeannette Byukusenge, 19, both are secondary students in TTC at Gacuba II, were among the youth who attended the concert. They told The New Times that they are committing to taking on the message they were given.