Own your problems, Kagame tells leaders

President Paul Kagame has said that time has come for Rwandans to devise ways of handling their own problems before intervention of development partners.The President was presiding over presentation of various innovations that have been realised by several sectors of the country at the event dubbed ‘Innovation day,’ organised by the Rwanda Association of Local Government Authorities (RALGA) at Serena Hotel yesterday.“All these activities that have been presented to us today encourage people to stop waiting for government intervention, which government also waits for foreign aid and we keep in that circle which does not get us anywhere,” Kagame told the leaders.Speaking about foreign aid, the President told leaders to always keep in mind that donors owe nothing to Rwandans.“Has any of you ever sat and thought about the fact that these people owe us nothing? Why should we always sit back and wait for their aid and take it for granted?” he questioned.Kagame dismissed claims that the reason donors keep aiding Africa is to compensate for the suffering that colonialism and slave trade to which Africans were subjected to in the past. “We should make donors our partners in development not our benefactors, let them come in only to compliment on what we have already achieved,” Kagame said.The activities that were showcased at the function ranged from Agriculture to Information and Communication Technology.He dared leaders to always endeavour reaching out to local people since they are the major reason for their respective offices.Other speakers at the event included, the State Minister for energy and telecommunication, Eng Albert Butare who assured the grassroot leaders that very soon, mobile telephone network will be covering a big part of the country thereby facilitating the One Phone per Family policy that government has introduced.He said that government, in partnership with MTN Rwanda-cell, a mobile service provider has imported over 30, 000 handsets that are to be distributed to locals at subsidised prices.The innovative day, according to Dr. Aisa Kirabo Kakira the president of RALGA, was introduced to identify which sectors are better performing vis avis the implementation of performance contracts commonly known as Imihigo.Ends