Africa has much to concentrate on than fighting for seats in UN-Kagame

African countries continue discussions requesting for two permanent seats in UN Security Council and two non-permanent seats.

Speaking Thursday to the members of the press, Kagame said that having seats in the council would not be the case as Africans have so many things to concentrate on towards the development of the continent.

The Head of State held the discussion alongside his Zambian counterpart, Edgar Lungu, shortly after both heads of state held bilateral talks in Kigali.

On realising Africa’s vision Kagame said that his thinking is to do whatever is humanly possible together with other African leaders to bring progress and development in the continent.

“We are so behind as a continent and it’s a shame that Africa has everything it needs to be where we want to be but we are still far from achieving that,” he said.

On Africa having a permanent seat in Security Council Kagame said “it should have been the case but as we know things don’t work the way we want. There are ongoing discussions as to how the council can be reformed and part of that being inclusion of the African voice,” he said.

“What is important is to know that certain seats are permanently for Africa and how to rotate them depends on us,” he added.

Speaking about Rwandan refugees in Zambia and cessation clause, Kagame said that the whole idea is not to make a refugee seat a permanent one. He said that they can’t keep producing and having refugees as an end in itself.

He said that Rwanda has been in discussion with different countries and partners and as long as the environment allows for the discussion to be properly managed, the refugee situation will get better with time.

About the AU implementation of 0.2% levy tax, Kagame said that it is not bad to begin with 21 countries and added that more countries have intention to start using the formula.

“Some people are not clear on what this implies; a lot of effort has been put into trying to explain this. We have the tax to explain, show the origin, the need and the actual possibility of achieving other goals that are important to African,” he said.

He noted that accountability process will have to be put in place so that Africa can move forward and stop being dragged back.