Kagame and Mushikiwabo made it to the annual list of most influential Africans who contributed in shaping the African narrative in the concluding year and also those envisaged to play a big role in the coming year, both on the continent and in the diaspora.<\/p>\n
The list which has been revealed in New African magazine December 2018 edition includes Ethiopia\u2019s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner DR Congo\u2019s Dr. Denis Mukwege; Botswana\u2019s 31-year old Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Bogolo Joy Kenewendo and Egypt\u2019s football star, Mo Salah among others.<\/p>\n
\u201cRwanda revolutionary shift from a past of shame has been astounding. In the last two decades, Rwanda has leaped from least developed status to middle-income nation thanks to President Kagame\u2019s fixation with what he terms the \u2018developmental state\u2019 model,\u201d New African Magazine, commented on Kagame.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every developed economy without exception is the fruit of a free market and a strong developmental state working in tandem. The orthodoxy of shrinking the state to the bare minimum and replacing it with externally funded non-state actors, left Africa with no viable path out of poverty, Kagame says, as quoted in the New African Magazine.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy and development both depend on good politics, in which there is no room for the powerful interests who benefited most from the predatory states created by colonialism and prompted up by Cold War cynicism. Our democratic advances are constantly negated and in actual fact subverted,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Rwanda\u2019s stability achieved, Kagame has now focused his energies towards reforming the African Union,\u201d the New Africa Magazine concludes on Rwanda\u2019s President Kagame who also doubles as the current Chairman of the African Union.<\/p>\n
On the list is also Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda\u2019s long-serving Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation was elected as the new Secretary General of the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), \u201cinterestingly, in what looks like a change of tack in terms of the France-Rwanda relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mushikiwabo assumes the new office in January 2019, becoming the second woman to head this international organization that represents nations and regions that speak French as a customary language after nine years heading Rwanda\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. <\/p>\n
In the region, popular Ugandan Member of Parliament and Musician, Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu known as Bobi Wine made it to the list with other musicians including Nigerians, David Adedeji Adeleke \u2018Davido\u2019 and Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun \u2018Wizkid\u2019 while other Heads of States on the list include South Africa\u2019s President, Cyril Ramaphosa and Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, President of Egypt. <\/p>\n
President Kagame made to the New African Magazine\u2019s list of 100 most influential Africans after he was last week awarded the \u2018African of The Year\u201d award at the finale of the All Africa Business Leadership Awards held in Johannesburg South Africa.<\/p>\n
The award celebrates and honors leaders who have contributed and shaped the African economy. President Kagame is also on the cover of the Forbes Africa December and January issue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Paul Kagame and former Minister of Foreign Affairs who is now the Secretary General of the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), Louise Mushikiwabo have been named among the 100 most influential people of the year 2018.<\/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":[180],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-38592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homehighlights","byline-samson-iradukunda"],"bylines":[{"id":180,"name":"Samson Iradukunda","slug":"samson-iradukunda","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":24}],"contributors":[{"id":180,"name":"Samson Iradukunda","slug":"samson-iradukunda","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":24}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38592","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=38592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38592"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=38592"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=38592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}