President Paul Kagame delivering a public lecture at Yale University (Photo/Urugwiro).
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has told Yale University community that Rwandans know what is right for them and always stand by to fight for their truth regardless of the price to be paid.
The President was last night delivering a public lecture at the Coca Cola World Fund Lecture at Yale University on the importance of value – based solidarity for the pursuit of international peace security and prosperity.
Addressing over 400 students, regional and international audiences, Kagame said that Rwanda experienced various allegations and perceptions spread in all parts of the world by invested interests and such contradictions reign in as true in full knowledge that they are erroneous.
“This is not a diplomacy; it’s a demand for submission. But Rwanda did not survive by giving in. If provoked, we prefer to stand to our ground and defend what we know to be correct even if there is a price to be paid,” Kagame said.
Relations between powerful nations and developing countries mostly from Africa was characterized by a perception of a master and a servant relation where orders and submission turned out to be great weapons to maintain it.
The President pointed out that the success of such relations rests on cooperation and partnership.
“After all, a willingness to obey is a poor predictor of reliability or virtue. Submission produces clients not partners.”
In his address, the head of state warned students of Yale University not to be consumers of unbalanced, biased information from Africa even in Rwanda as true voices were silenced or aren’t trustworthy like information conveyors considered as eminent scholars.
As for peace, he said that though Rwanda is the fifth troop contributor to the world peacekeeping missions, the preservation of peace, security and prosperity rests on a common vision for the future anchored in shared values to deal with violent extremism, forced migration, state collapse among others.
Past speakers at the event included Prince Moulay Hichem Ben Abdallah of Morocco, former Ireland President Mary Robinson, Raila Odinga; Raghuram Rajan, Governor of the Reserve bank of India, US ambassador to UN Samantha Power and Mo Ibrahim, among others.
Coca Cola World Fund Lecture was established in 1992 by former Coca Cola CEO Roberto Goizeuta to support endeavors among specialists in international relations, international law and the management of international enterprises and organisations.