{Kigali: This week Rwanda celebrates its 22nd Liberation Day. For Rwandans liberation means moving from darkness to light, divisive politics to unity, hatred to love, discord to union but most importantly from hopelessness to life full of belief and promises.}

July 4, 1994 marked the final overthrow of one of the world’s most brutal governments whose army and allied militias killed at least 10,000 people every day at the end of which over a million Tutsi had been massacred in just 90 days.

But the survivors, desperate but lucky to be still alive in a practically dead country, found liberation in the hands of the Rwanda Patriotic Army led by His Excellency Paul Kagame, who was its Commander-in-Chief. The genocide was stopped.

Rwanda is blessed to be celebrating twenty two years of remarkable achievements, at the time when fellow Africans are descending on Kigali for the EU Summit in which over 50 African Heads of State and other important dignitaries will convene to devise ways of making our continent more prosperous.

Particular focus will be on the rights of women. Rwanda has done exceptionally well with regard to empowering women across all sectors of the country’s economy and it is not done for affirmative action reasons but because our leadership believes that women deserve equal rights with those that men enjoy.

It’s evident that few if not none would have believed that hosting an event of such magnitude by a country that was branded a failed state only twenty-two years ago would be possible. But Rwanda is here, rubbing shoulders and competing with the best. Possessing no notable natural resources and being landlocked are no obstacles to our progress; the human resource is enough. This comes only in a matter of weeks after we have successfully hosted the World Economic Forum.

Global rankings have continued to rank Rwanda among the best due to its visionary leadership and sound transformational policies. According to the recent UN’s Human Development Index, Rwanda has an annual growth rate of about 8%, is the second easiest place to do business on the continent, the safest to walk at night in Africa and fifth globally. Life expectancy has risen from 51 years old to almost 70 years old in 2016. Over 90% of the population have health insurance. These are only but a few vital statistics.

For any country to record the above milestones, its people have to be united and moving towards achieving a common goal. That was the only choice that Rwanda remained with and therefore had to work towards that lifetime goal. Twenty-two years on, Rwanda is moving at a faster but steady speed of rebuilding and reconciling.

Although Rwanda continues to register these remarkable achievements, we know the journey is long and we are not anywhere close to where we want to be. One simple example is that Rwandans are working around the clock to become a middle-income country by the year 2020 and transform into a knowledge-based economy that can compete regionally and globally. But who wants to remain in that middle pool? Majority of Rwandans will tell you they want to be up there with the best, not in the middle. That’s why they show no signs of complacency but continue to work hard to achieve these remarkable goals.

Many continue to associate Rwanda with it’s atrocious past that was characterized by dreadful acts carried out by the genocidal government before and during 1994. But Rwandans have decided not be slaves of their own past. They have put their past behind them with a commitment to democracy, justice, reconciliation and development.

This is vivid and visible on the faces of Rwandans, be it our men in uniform who spend sleepless nights to ensure that those not in uniform sleep with a peaceful mind. They even go as far as putting their life on the line in foreign countries where they go for peacekeeping duties. Rwanda’s young professionals in both the public and private sector will tell you that all they need is piece and prosperity. Our leaders in higher offices continue to work day and night to make sure that nothing would temper with what has been achieved, especially by dividing Rwandans, which has always been the source of our horrific past.

Had it not been for the sacrifice and charisma made by the gallant sons of RPF Inkotanyi, the tag of a failed state would have been real. One can only thank and promise them that those they liberated and rescued from the hands of bloody murderers will continue to carry the torch and there will be an ever bright light at the end of the tunnel. There is no turning back.

President Kagame once said: “We cannot turn the clock back nor can we undo the harm caused, but we have the power to determine the future and to ensure that what happened never happens again”.

Determining the bright future and avoiding the past mistakes is the only way and choice Rwandans have made.

East African presidents join Rwanda President Paul Kagame during Liberation Day celebrations.

This article was originally published in The Standard Media