President of the Republic Paul Kagame said that Africa should not continue to fear those who think they have the ability to rule the world, but rather give them time. The Head of State made the remarks during a speech at the opening of the Africa CEO Forum, a major business and investment conference that will last two days here in Kigali.
Here, President Kagame was asked whether the sanctions imposed on Rwanda due to the ongoing war in Congo have anything to do with the interests of those seeking precious minerals in Congo.
Here, Kagame pointed out that the international community is biased towards Congo because of the precious minerals they expect there, and therefore they impose sanctions on Rwanda, because it does not have these resources to offer.
President Kagame, however, explained to them that all this comes and goes, so that even those who do it do not feel that they will last forever, they are just manipulating whoever they want.
He said, “In fact, the power of Africa is like a closed system. So the power is closed to us, it is the people who have sticks, they hit whoever they want to hit, just like you said in the Congo issue, etc.”
He said, “First of all, are these sanctions justified? These sanctions are given based on who gives less than the other. The one who has more is the one who is favored.”
At this point, Kagame was immediately asked, “Are the roads to Congo really about precious stones?”
At this point, President Kagame said, “That is really obvious, the sun is shining. It is like in the past. A king could give his son-in-law, his son, authority and say, ‘Go and rule here and there.’ Now it is happening here again. They tell someone to go and take over there and do whatever you want. That is how Africa is.”
Kagame said, “These things you see people teaching about democracy, human rights and so on, they say them with one hand, but with the other hand they take what Africans own.”
He said, “That is why African leaders and businessmen, we should really try to value ourselves, not be people who come to take our wealth. We must know how to say no.”
However, they asked President Kagame if he would not reach a point where he would give up and this struggle for truth and development in Africa would end, and he said, “Let me not give up. I did not do it during a difficult time, during a difficult war, now is not the time to do it.”
Kagame said, “Of course, sanctions hurt, but we would also suffer more if we did not do what we had to do. It is a matter of statistics. And saying no is easy, because saying yes to something bad would be more painful.”
He said, “All these things will come and go, one way or another. These people who are used to harassing us, will not live long enough to benefit from having people as their tools, those who are used to doing bad things. We Africans can do something to raise the continent to where it should be.”
Here he said, “Don’t be afraid of those who think they own the earth and the heavens and everything else.”