Speaking at a ceremony to bid farewell to the outgoing Foreign Affairs Minister in Kigali on November 3, 2018, graced by different officials including African foreign affairs ministers, representatives of their countries in Rwanda and friends of Rwanda among others, <\/p>\n
President Kagame talked about the first days of when he heard of Mushikiwabo\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey requested me to recommend Louise to run for OIF Secretary. In fact, in the beginning, I didn’t understand the reason why they wanted her and how it came about. I tried to understand it and started noticing something. I didn\u2019t see anything wrong with her candidature,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said that he even hesitated to decide whether he would let go of Mushikiwabo \u201cwho was our minister, did her job properly and let her go elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, he said, it would not immediately put her in the position because it would also have to go through an election. <\/p>\n
Kagame said that he was concerned about what could happen if Mushikiwabo didn’t win the election yet he had been requested to ask her to run for the position. <\/p>\n
He said he then approached Mushikiwabo and asked her what she thought about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are those who told me that they see you as a good candidate. What do you think about it? I couldn\u2019t give any feedback until I had asked you about it. It surprised her. So, I gave her time to think about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kagame revealed that he as well talked to Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson African Union Commission about it but was surprised that he had also known about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him that I was still looking for the reason behind it while awaiting Louise\u2019s response. Finally, we agreed about it and discussed how it should be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
President Kagame said that he was shown the benefits that could be gained from the position in terms of deepening relations with other countries and allowed Mushikiwabo\u2019s candidacy, much as he still needed her as a Foreign Affairs Minister. <\/p>\n
He said if Louise Mushikiwabo won the election, then they would achieve what they wanted to. If she didn’t for other possible reasons, he would be happy to retain her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was bound to win either way,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He pledged to continue being close to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not forget to call you as I used to do when you were still the Foreign Affairs Minister,\u201d he told Mushikiwabo.<\/p>\n
President Kagame praised the unity of African heads of state and other OIF member countries that backed Mushikiwabo.<\/p>\n
“Whenever Africa has come together, we have always won. I saw unity in the African leaders, especially of the francophonie part of Africa, all agreeing that Louise is the right candidate and we are going to put our weight behind her. And they did. I thank leaders of our continent and leaders beyond our continent, who supported the African position, which led to this success.” Kagame noted<\/p>\n
Mushikiwabo was elected in OIF 17th summit in Yerevan, Armenia between 11- 12 October 2018 after defeating the former holder of the office, Micha\u00eblle Jean, a Canadian.<\/p>\n
In her speech, Mushikiwabo thanked President Paul Kagame who trusted her and others who were key to her victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI owe my victory to President Paul Kagame. I thank you very much,\u201d she said.
\nShe also thanked Chairperson, AU Commission, Moussa Faki, from Chad, for being close to her during her election campaign.<\/p>\n
Faki said that Mushikiwabo challenged him for approving her candidacy but succeeded persuading her how much Africa and Rwanda would benefit if she were to be elected.<\/p>\n
\u201cMushikiwabo told me that I had put her in trouble. I explained to her that it was for a good reason because OIF is comprised of 54 countries including 29 African countries that make decisions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said that he also told her that OIF is involved in addressing African pressing issues including peace, democracy, youth and women, and environment among others.<\/p>\n
Moussa thanked President Kagame for the trust he has for him by seeking his advice about Mushikiwabo, Rwanda and Africa\u2019s candidate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat victory is ours. It bespeaks well of your leadership, your actions and vision. You have built a beautiful country in a short time not only because of the infrastructure but also its inhabitants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mushikiwabo will assume office in January 2019 at OIF headquarters in Paris, France. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Paul Kagame has talked about how he received information about the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo\u2019s candidacy for the top office at International Organization of la Francophonie (OIF), how he sought advice in relation to the same and how he was reluctant to let go of her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[69],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-38449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homehighlights","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38449"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=38449"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=38449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}