The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
New York, US | THE INDEPENDENT | President Paul Kagame has held a meeting in New York with his Presidential Advisory Council (PAC), and hailed them for sticking with the country in its struggles to get back on its feet fully.
“I sincerely want to thank all of you for staying the course and sticking with us for a very long time. From the time we were not given any chance to do anything,” he told the “Friends of Rwanda”, a selected group of eminent Rwandan and International experts who offer strategic advice to the President and the Rwandan government at large.
He said the country has a good story to tell the world, as Rwanda has rebuilt itself to a point at which they wish to be held.
“Today, we can say that we have good news in a sense of where the country is . We are not yet there as we all know, but we have made progress. It is still a work in progress,” Kagame said.
“I want to thank you because this story that we’ve built in and outside Rwanda, we’ve done it together; and Rwandans are actually happy. If anyone has doubt about that go talk to them,” he said, “They tell you these stories themselves. It is not something to wait for to be told by some journalists. And all of them have something to show. It’s real.”
FULL SPEECH
PAC members evolve from time, and at one time included Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Ugandan journalist and publisher Andrew Mwenda.
Asked about the latest PAC session, Mwenda said he had not been informed about it. “I have not attended PAC meetings for the last two years,he said.
The council has had a few constant faces, such as Saddleback Church founder Pastor Rick Warren and American businessman and friend of Rwanda Joe Ritchie , and, Dr. Donald Kaberuka former head of the African Development Bank Group, among others.
PAC was launched on September 26, 2007 and meets in April and in September every year.
Full list of current Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) members
Joseph Ritchie
Andrea Redmond
Ashish Thakkar
Christian Angermayer
Dr Clet Niyikiza
Dale Dawson
Dr Donald Kaberuka
Dr Éliane Ubalijoro
Bishop John Rucyahana
Kaia Miller
Michael Fairbanks
Prof. Michael Porter
Michael Roux
Dr Paul Davenport
Pastor Rick Warren
Scott Ford
Sir Tom Hunter
Sir David King
Doug Shears
Rod Reynolds
Only three rwandans /Africans are fit to offer Mwami Kagame 1 of Rwanda advise…Hope the Mwami doesn’t forget Mobutu was Western darling with Western advisors until they abandoned him when was he no longer useful to them.