Rwandan: Envoy urges Nigerians to see themselves as one united people

Rwandan Envoy(middle)R-L, Rebecca Mu'azua (VON) & some Nigerian Journalists

Rwandan: Envoy urges Nigerians to see themselves as one united people
Rebecca Mu’azu, Abuja

The Rwandan High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Joseph Habineza has urged Nigerians to stop focusing or emphasizing on ethnicity and religion and start seeing themselves as one united people.

In an interview with Voice of Nigeria, Mr. Habineza said ethnicity was a major cause of his country’s genocide, in which an estimated eight hundred thousand people were killed.

The High Commissioner said with the numerous ethnic, religious and regional divisions in Nigeria, “emphasizing on them was dangerous and an easy means of destruction for any country in Africa”.

According to him, “one of the major causes of the Rwandan genocide was ethnic rivalry”.

He urged Nigerians to see themselves as Nigerians and not the religion, tribe or region they belonged to.

Ethnic rivalry

He said Rwanda's colonialists, Germany and Belgium, used the system of divide and rule on the people and created three groups; the Hutus, Tutsis and Twas.

Mr. Habineza said these groups shared a common culture and language and were classified as social groups rather than tribes but that it was later used to create rivalry and disaffection among them, leading to the tensions that subsequently led to the 1994 genocide.

He appealed to Nigerians to avoid seeing themselves from religious, tribal or regional perspectives, if the country was to attain its developmental potentials.

Haven of Investments

Now, seventeen years after the genocide, Rwanda has moved on progressively, the High Commissioner declared.

According to Mr Habineza, his country has undergone reconstruction and restructuring in virtually all sectors of the economy.

He said to avoid reoccurrence of the ethnic strife of the past, the government has erased ethnicity and religion as a means of identification in the country.

The Rwandan envoy explained that another success story recorded in his country was in the education sector, where a carefully executed restructuring has resulted in the institution of nine years of basic education, accessible and free to all Rwandan citizens.

He added that plans were at an advanced stage to improve on the existing basic education calender years by extending the duration from 9 to 12 years of free and accesible basic education for all.

Mr. Habineza said one of his country's more enduring legacies was the adopting of a zero-tolerance stance on corruption, making Rwanda a safe haven for investment.

Nigeria-Rwanda relations

On bilateral relations between Nigeria and Rwanda, Mr. Habineza told Voice of Nigeria that “the two countries were working to enhance relations between them, particularly the recent signing of the Bilateral Air Services Agreement”.

He said already, an application had been made by his country to Nigeria for the take of flight operations by December 1, 2011, in addition to plans to establish soon, a Rwanda-Nigeria Business Administration.

The measures are expected to enhance business and other economic relations between both countries.

Uche Iheanacho (with agency reports), Edited by: Hajia Sani

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