Author: Apollo Higiro

But then, as life dulls into a lull, there are quite a number actions and lessons we get from this outbreak. First, we really are all in this together and our shared sacrifice should be to solve this common problem, consistent with Rwandan values; values that make Rwanda a great nation.

Remember, on the entire African continent [and the world, I can say] Rwanda is a country that represents and personifies hope.

The Government is making us feel safest by confronting reality and moving proactively. That is why lockdown and ‘stay at home’ actions came in effect when the cases had not got in the tens before it makes irreparable inroads… But because COVOID-19 is feared more for its contagiousness than for its lethal severity, it’s easy to be seduced by the desire to retreat into denial or try to avoid accountability altogether.

We need to remind ourselves that the pathogen first got out of control in China because of their government’s impulse to hide the truth. Denial is lethal.

Rwanda has proactively taken the lockdown and other measures basing on smart, science-based decision-making to drive government action against coronavirus, as denial would only make things worse; because the scourge is a serious life or death struggle. It is a challenge that requires responsibility from all citizens. Overcoming it will not be a quick fix — it will take time, innovation and sacrifice. But we will get through this, emerge stronger and wiser.

{{Let us do this}}

When we “STAY AT HOME”, we are actively supporting a “FLATTENING THE CURVE” anti-pandemic global policy/action, designed to minimize loss of life while maintaining proper functionality of the country and its health system plus normal continuity of the state and the economy after the pandemic.

Flattening the curve advocates for a technic similar to a “Scorched Earth” policy against the advancing virus so that it finds nothing to survive on wherever it reaches, can’t find anyone else to jump on to, and thereby quickly dies out. It is therefore apparent that we need to start flattening the curve early before we are overwhelmed like Italy.

We all need to understand what the effort is about so that we fight this together as a country.

The citizens’ part is simply to stay at home for the stipulated quarantine period. That’s all.

This is the time our country needs all of us marching together against this macabre global pandemic. This is the time for patriotism with a heart.

{{Do some more}}

Is all doom and gloom? Even as we await what lies ahead? I would say no. Sequestered at home with our families — away from the mad dash of social gatherings in the name of social distancing — we’re reminded that they are what really matters.

Playing catch in the backyard, reading a book, talking, cooking, laughing — these are the real joys of life. We should savor the simple things despite whatever fear we may feel.

Coronavirus came as an exogenous bolt from the blue, coming with it a cascade of default actions and inactions. It has disrupted and altered our routines, culture, businesses, incomes, and welfare in just two weeks.

It is one of the most feared cataclysms in modern history with the possibility of zipping up, going into hibernation even more terrifying.

It’s a crisis playing out in microdecisions; how we go to the market, how our children school, intensified hygienic practices-tiny decisions with far reaching effects depending on how well each is done.

Many world powers at first took it for a triviality, with president David Trump saying in his usual tart dry statements: “It’s going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear. Maybe [it could] go away. We’ll see what happens. Nobody really knows.”

In Rwanda, we are lucky to have a president who inspires confidence in normal and times of crisis. During this year’s Umwiherero [leadership Retreat] the former minister of health tried dilly-dallying with instructions of testing participants. She was fired.

When the first case of coronavirus was identified in the country, President Paul Kagame was the first to demonstrate an end to time-long practices of handshakes and hugs; issued a statement on avoiding panic but focus on recommended practices and discipline; and joined WHO in Safe Hands campaign-a handwashing promotion practice.

Since then, a number of drastic actions have been taken; students sent home, entertainment and conferences postponed, big gatherings banned, among others.

Controls and screening had earlier been established at the airport and border posts.

Good enough Rwandans have been compliant and vigilant. In Kigali, handwashing cans with liquid soap have been placed at every restaurant, bar, market and big malls.

For those that have the capacity to work online, are doing so, giving social distancing a meaning, reducing contact and attendant risks.

This has played well to demonstrate that in any developing crisis, it’s best not to panic but to be smart and prudent.

The vigilance, especially, has to be strengthened because much as coronavirus is not as lethal as Ebola, its danger lies more in its contagiousness i.e. the ability of the virus to spread from one sick person to others. Again, scientists say, coronavirus is not the most contagious disease there is, but it can spread quickly and, more alarmingly, an infected person can be contagious before symptoms appear, and thus unknowingly infect those around him or her.

So when you hear people say that schools in Rwanda have closed because the infected are in latent thousands, you know they do not understand the disease and the leadership of Rwanda. Rwandan leadership is not accustomed to consuming, and reacting to, “moments.” They prepare for the worst and work for the best. Simple.

So the important thing Rwanda has done is to communicate, to inform, to sort out who is really infected. Direct, transparent communications like it is being done by the Ministry of Health is crucial. More, though, needs to be communicated on; keeping distance, motor-taxi travels, saunas, gyms, salons, and beauty parlors.

As a country that is inching out of many shadows, including out of poverty, the leadership cannot afford the luxury of waiting for stern action only when everywhere the “system is blinking red.” No.

Getting overwhelmed by numbers should be kept at bay by doing the right preventive practices. Now.

Beyond the direct health realms, managing resource allocation, daily press briefings, identifying false information and formulating stop-gap measures to address deficits in the economic performance as a result of coronavirus is of great importance in relieving families and businesses that have been immensely affected by the pandemic.

Rwanda has already decided to consult with banks on the possibility of adjusting loan repayment regimes for borrowers whose businesses have been hit by the coronavirus and promised to lax tax returning and payment procedures and timing.

What will become of us as citizens of the world? That page is blank. For now.

The quote, published more than a century ago, has a way it resonates among Rwandans, all around the world, and can be used in defining Rwanda and the leadership of the country.

In much of the world media, the country was usually referred to as “a tiny, central African state, the size of…”(then put the name of a very small American state) …and then they would continue with detailing the dark history of 1994.

But Rwanda, right after liberation, refused to be a hostage of that bad history.

Today, Rwanda not only personifies hope before the eyes of the world, it is demonstrating that big ideas can be nurtured from a flicker into glowing success, using the little resources available. What matters is the spirit.

When it was recently announced that a $70m basilica is to be constructed in Kibeho holy land in Nyaruguru district, and set to be one of the biggest in the world, my mind raced through a number of mega projects that the country embarked on, implemented and completed, some of which are the biggest in the region.

But what intrigues me, even more, is how these ideas, the idea of starting, no matter how big, are permeating among ordinary Rwandans. It is not uncommon today to find mega projects in millions of dollars in the hands of individuals in the private sector. When the government invests in multi-million dollar projects, it, in a way, boosts the confidence of the private investors to also seed their money in different sectors of the economy.

The spirit of entrepreneurship, as a result, has also been cultivated among rural Rwandans. Cooperatives have become vehicles of entrepreneurship through which individual and group capacities have been enhanced. Today, cooperatives of ordinary Rwandans own multi-storey, multi-billion buildings in Kigali and other towns around the country, agro-processing plants, transport companies, livestock, handicraft projects, among a plethora of others.

Farmers in villages, picking a leaf from the leadership of the country, have taken to that practice of taking risks, investing in small businesses; no matter how small, and this is gradually transforming their livelihoods. Many rural Rwandans that had never thought of themselves as potential investors [do no mind the size], have tested the waters and are now tasting the fruits, getting even more inspired by intense enthusiasm and their neighbors’ successes, neighbors that were once poor but have now got their lives better through those small investments.

What I am saying is, there is a top-down inspiration-top leader inspire and guide the people, and horizontal osmosis of ideas and zeal among peasants-one peasant inspires and ignites another. Where you would find envy and jealousy among peasant communities in yesteryears, today you find cooperation and sharing experiences.

But beyond the spirit of ‘money investments’, the RPF-led government has succeeded in investing in mindset change; with big fights against genocide ideology; still, leading from the front; taking good where it had never stepped before –geographically and in the minds of the people – talking to all people with one mellifluous educated voice of looking to the future with steadfast focus, empowering and actually giving them (all) the torch to light in the darkest of corners so that they do not stumble, nay, fall again; leading from the front, telling and showing the followers how possible it is – to build the Rwanda we all want.

That is a very big spirit; so big that it surpasses the physical size of the country, for it is a resource in itself that has become a Rwandan currency.