The Head of State said this during a meeting with African Union Youth Corps. The meeting brought together 90 young professionals from 45 AU member states including 15 Rwandan youth. The group was in Rwanda for a two-week training on volunteerism, according to the Office of the President.
President Kagame reminded the youth to focus on similarities than differences between themselves and be mindful to seize opportunities and fight away challenges.
“You find that those of you from different parts of the continent are going to discover more similarities than differences between you. For those differences there are also positives; being different is not negative. The most important thing is for you as leaders of today and tomorrow to be mindful of the fact that you need to seize opportunities and push back on challenges so that they don’t stand in your way.” Kagame says
Taking from the country’s tragic past, Kagame told that it had provided useful lessons to the nation at large.
“We are like a laboratory; everything has been tested here. But this past also comes with a silver lining in that what we drew from our past has gone a long way to make us better people than we were in history.” He said
“We don’t feel that there is anything special we have done as Rwanda. If we managed to overcome our challenges ourselves then anyone else in the world can. As young people you should never surrender to problems.” He added.
Kagame noted that there were problems specific to different parts of the continent but urged the youth to work and stand together so to be stronger in tackling those challenges.
“This is the African Union idea and should be the ideal that leads & drives you as young Africans.” Kagame said.
President also noted that Africa had everything it needed and urged the youth to be dynamic, use its own resources and think differently than how others did.
“God gave us everything to use; a rich continent and brains to produce more but why do we as a continent keep going back and ask God to help us? Africa needs the youth to think and do things differently and better than we did. Stop making Africa look like a cursed continent. God gave us more than what he gave others. Let us be proud and use these resources.” He said
“As young people you don’t have as many limitations as you perceive. You have the potential in you to be anything you want. You can contribute to make your country and continent what it deserves to be.” He says.
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