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President Kagame begins Keynote address: I am very happy to be back in Abuja. I would like to start by calling to mind the greatness of this nation. The diversity, creativity and ambition of Nigerians represent Africa #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame: I would like to start by calling to mind the greatness of this nation. The diversity, creativity and ambition of Nigerians represent Africa. The achievements of Nigeria’s sons and daughters here at home and in your global diaspora make our continent proud.
President Kagame: Nigeria has always shown common cause with Africa’s progress and prosperity and this does not go unnoticed. This country is truly the engine of Africa’s potential. This is how we see Nigeria. I hope you know that #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame: We stand in solidarity with your efforts to build on all the assets with which this country has been blessed and we are invested in your success #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame: I’m aware that the summit’s theme focuses on curbing electoral spending. I look forward to hearing from experts on strategies for eliminating this form of corruption. However, in order to succeed in the ultimate goal, we have to keep the broader context in mind.
President Kagame: That is why I suggest we reframe the fight against corruption in positive terms: As a struggle for transparency, public integrity and accountability #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame: There is one of your own who wrote a book titled; Fight Against Corruption Is Dangerous. She gave me the book and I reminded her that she needs to write another book to state that not fighting corruption is even more dangerous #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame: This is a campaign that can be won. Tolerating corruption is a choice not an inevitability. It is within our power to end it. That is the most important starting point. Otherwise, it would be a waste of time for us to keep talking about it.
President Kagame: The primary responsibility to act lies with leaders at every level. Where corruption has become the norm, a way of life, it is because leaders have made it that way #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame: We tend to focus on the petty corruption of everyday life while turning a blind eye to the more consequential forms that people only whisper about, because the rich and powerful are the main beneficiaries #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame shares a personal story of facing corruption: One time I was travelling and made a stop at one African airport. While refueling I walked around to stretch and there happened to be policemen and one approached me asking for something.
President Kagame: He kept pointing to my chest and I didn’t realise I had a pen in my pocket. When I showed it to him he confirmed that is what he wanted. I understood what he wanted. I went back in to ask if anyone had money and gave the policeman money plus the pen.
President Kagame: I told my cabinet members the story and reminded them that the policeman’s story meant that maybe we are making too many demands on this policeman.
President Kagame: We are not paying the policemen well and they have to keep going around begging and later on if you don’t give him the money he may use his gun to hurt you.
President Kagame: Even though as a country we don’t have much, we can share the little resources we have equitably so that even the policeman feels like they are being taken care of.
President Kagame: This was to inform ourselves of the complexities we have to carry out and the multifaceted issues we have to deal with.
President Kagame: Corruption needs to be tackled from the top down. This is not only the fairest approach, it is also the most effective, because it empowers the public to join the fight and hold leaders accountable, through elections and other means #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame: In that way, corruption can definitely be reduced to the minimum possible and that makes a tremendous difference. However, it also takes careful organisation and messaging to make this practice widespread #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame: Overcoming corruption is really about four key principles: Culture, responsibility, accountability, and effectiveness. We must discard the myth that corruption is endemic to particular cultures.
President Kagame: Corruption is a universal weakness, not an African one, and it is not part of our destiny as a continent. Indeed, research has shown that some of the biggest sources and beneficiaries of corruption are outside of Africa, and this has always been the case.
President Kagame: When somebody gives you addictive drugs with one hand, and offers the cure with the other, it is not altruism, but a form of control that encourages passivity #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame: In the absence of a politics that values individual integrity, even well-established institutions are not enough to deter wrongdoing, as has been demonstrated by repeated scandals in advanced economies at the top of international transparency rankings.
President Kagame: That is why it is past time to redefine transparency as a global objective that requires us all to work together with mutual respect #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame: Corruption does not take decades to eradicate. Huge gains can be made relatively quickly, once we decide to break the habit. That brings me to responsibility. This principle is inherent to our respective cultures in Africa.
President Kagame: We are in charge of our own future. The purpose of transparency is not to impress others, but rather to make our own societies better, because that is what our people expect. The third and fourth foundation stones are accountability and effectiveness.
President Kagame: Without transparency, it is impossible to earn and keep the trust of the people. And without trust we will not be able to effectively use national wealth to make measurable improvements to the well-being of our citizens.
President Kagame: We have to set our sights high. It is not enough to “fight corruption” just as merely “fighting poverty” is too small an ambition for Africa. We want to create value and wealth not merely fighting corruption.
President Kagame: Our liberation struggle in Rwanda and in Africa more generally, has always been based on the ideals of eliminating discrimination, entrenching good governance and ensuring all citizens benefit equally from nation-building.
President Kagame: As a new government, the turning point in Rwanda’s peace-building process came after months of intense national consultations. Out of this dialogue, key institutions were created to foster transparency and lay the foundation for a sound national fiscal base.
President Kagame: These included the Rwanda Revenue Authority, the Auditor General, the Ombudsman, as well as home-grown solutions such as performance contracts signed by officials at every level known as “imihigo”.
President Kagame: We must make sure that these institutions and mechanisms actually work. They are created to give us results #EFCCAntiCorruptionSummit
President Kagame: We quickly found out that fighting corruption has a huge political cost. Officials who did not live up to the agreed standards were dismissed or brought to justice. Others fled into exile and pretended to be so-called “opposition” or “pro-democracy” groups
President Kagame: Some thought we could not afford to take this zero-tolerance approach given the fragility of our environment. The truth however, is that we couldn’t afford not to do it. It is the foundation of the modest progress for which Rwandans continue to work.
President Kagame: Everywhere, trust in democratic processes is declining, leaving a cynical citizenry that is easily manipulated by the politics of division. Fighting political corruption is therefore just as urgent as fighting economic corruption.
President Kagame: The strategy for is to build on Africa’s cultural heritage to cultivate the mindsets of responsibility, accountability and effectiveness in our leaders and especially in our young people as we continue to build&strengthen institutions that will serve this cause
President Kagame concludes: Warm congratulations for President @Mbuhari on his re-election and best wishes for the entire Nigerian people on the road ahead. I also want to mention that President Buhari is @_AfricanUnion champion in the fight against corruption.
President Kagame: After the Genocide Against the Tutsi, the first Foreign Minister appointed connived with leaders particularly the then Prime Minister. He was given money to go open new embassies but never came back.
President Kagame: Today he is one of the opposition leaders living in France and people accept he is fighting for democracy. A couple of years later, the same PM agreed with the then President to go and buy vehicles; Mercedes Benz, for cabinet ministers. He had to carry cash.
President Kagame: I told the President this was wrong. We cannot afford to prioritize this type of thing. First of all, our first priority shouldn’t be buying mercedes for our ministers. This is 1998, four years after Genocide.
President Kagame: We are trying to build institutions and the first thing that came to mind is to buy Mercedes for Ministers who have no offices or furniture.
President Kagame: I told the then President that we cannot afford to prioritize this type of thing and we cannot give money to someone else. We can’t keep doing that unless we are to be doomed to never leave the transition.
President Kagame: This so called opposition have turned us into what they call authoritarian because we did not allow them to take this money. Between not fighting corruption and being called authoritarian, I prefer being called authoritarian.
