Quotes About Paul Kagame

#1. I had to fight hard for everything. I wanted to get out. I want to take my destiny into my own hands and escape the vicious cycle of retaliatory violence. This struggle has shaped who I am to this day.

Paul Kagame

#2. You kept quit ... When these victims wanted your help to survive, you kept quit.

Paul Kagame

#3. Aid leads to more aid and more aid and more aid and less independence of the people that are receiving aid.

Paul Kagame

#4. It is the first time in the history of Rwanda that political change in the highest leadership of the country has taken place in peace and security.

Paul Kagame

#5. The new Rwanda is about building an economy that delivers prosperity and opportunity for our citizens based on a robust private sector. Foreign adventures would be costly and counterproductive distractions from these challenging objectives.

Paul Kagame

#6. It is better for a country to have a strong leader, this applies to the United States as well as to Rwanda.

Paul Kagame

#7. The West is anything but altruistic.

Paul Kagame

#8. I do not want to be cynical, but if developing nations are kept backward by being told, again and again, you belong to the poor and you are there, where you actually belong, then nothing will change.

Paul Kagame

#9. National security is vital for economic and social progress.

Paul Kagame

#10. Rwanda is not over needing aid, but we can survive with less aid than before.

Paul Kagame

#11. I often wonder why the West is much more interested in aid deliveries than in fair trade, for example. The fair exchange of goods would place far more money into the hands of the affected people than relief operations.

Paul Kagame

#12. We've used aid to build capacities so we won't need aid in future.

Paul Kagame

#13. Democracy holds little appeal for people who are struggling to survive.

Paul Kagame

#14. It is the population which decides when it's time for a leader to leave, not foreign powers.

Paul Kagame

#15. There is a need to take advantage of the change that has taken place in the Congo, however tragic that has been in its coming.

Paul Kagame

#16. Israel and Rwanda both play an active part in international organizations, including the U.N., but I think it's true that our unique experiences as nations have shaped a fierce independence that we will not relinquish.

Paul Kagame

#17. There are things I admire, for example, about South Korea or Singapore. I admire their history, their development and how intensively they have invested in their people and in technology.

Paul Kagame

#18. Technology has brought many possibilities in education and health that are key to women.

Paul Kagame

#19. There are some who are scared by unity and by building a country on the basis of ideas.

Paul Kagame

#20. Politics is not only about personal choice. That one also needs to take into consideration what the people want because in the end, they are the ones who decide.

Paul Kagame

#21. Aid makes itself superfluous if it is working well. Good aid takes care to provide functioning structures and good training that enables the recipient country to later get by without foreign aid. Otherwise, it is bad aid.

Paul Kagame

#22. Let no one think that flexibility and a predisposition to compromise is a sign of weakness or a sell-out.

Paul Kagame

#23. The history and national interest of Rwanda and the Rwandan people dictate our national orientation.

Paul Kagame

#24. We cannot turn the clock back nor can we undo the harm caused, but we have the power to determine the future and to ensure that what happened never happens again.

Paul Kagame

#25. Moving container from Kigali to Mombasa used to take 22 days, now it takes 6 days.

Paul Kagame

#26. Rwanda has its own problems and never sought to blame others or cause others trouble. I advise Burundi to do the same.

Paul Kagame

#27. Such problems are not solved in one day but there is a great step toward peace and security in the region.

Paul Kagame

#28. Rwanda is a monarchy not a democracy.

Paul Kagame

#29. Infrastructure is key, but also how it's used, and that's political.

Paul Kagame

#30. I grew up in a refugee camp in Uganda, and I lived there for 30 years. That shapes one's character.

Paul Kagame

#31. Strong economic growth, and especially a significant increase in private sector investment, is the only sustainable path forward for Rwanda.

Paul Kagame

#32. Human rights groups are locked in a fierce competition for big checks from wealthy donors and they need to generate big headlines.

Paul Kagame

#33. Africa's story has been written by others; we need to own our problems and solutions and write our story.

Paul Kagame

#34. Listen more to the one who criticizes you and less to
the one who praises you. Learn from them and do
something about it.

Paul Kagame

#35. In Africa today, we recognise that trade and investment, and not aid, are pillars of development.

Paul Kagame

#36. My purpose is to develop a country, to empower its population. It's from that same population that will emerge the man or woman who will succeed me. And they will be chosen based on the consensus that they have the capacity to lead the country.

Paul Kagame