The Meaning of Voting 'Yes'

WHAT a Week! What event-driven moves that filled up my Twitter feeds, fundamentally spiced up the outlook onto not only my career’s future but the one for my fellow Rwandans!

For starters, Janet Yellen-Head of the US Federal Reserve Bank announced the first long-awaited interest rate hike in nearly a decade since 2006, on which the global stock markets responded with a mixture of highs and lows. Not failing to mention the uncorrelated oil prices fall along with energy stocks plummeting. President Jacob Zuma of South Africa made a costly strategic tumble earlier last week by switching 3 finance ministers within one week. Following South Africa today highly leveraged balance sheet, this stumble sent the Rand (South Africa’s currency) onto its knees by dropping at more than 9% versus the US dollar over the weekend.

Now question is, with this week’s ongoing riots in South Africa’s major cities, could Mr. Zuma likely be following Jose Mourinho who just a couple of days ago was sacked from Chelsea FC management due to a staggering drop in performance? If not, what is Mr Zuma going to do about his nation’s sovereign bond rating which recently was ruthlessly downgraded to just a one notch above Junk?  Be advised that South Africa debt to GDP ratio surged from 26% to 50% today since 2009 when he took office; while Rwanda’s government long-term budget self-funding policy so far has brought this same ratio from 119% to less than 40% since year 2000.

Although all of the above mentioned interest rate hike and all other choppy market behaviors were enough to get my adrenaline unleashed, none would turn my head the most than the Rwandan constitutional referendum elections which took place this week.

Now with Rwanda’s outstanding growth in several fibers of economic sectors, this referendum came to be a leading indicator of whether or not Rwandans have actually come to project what the future could be assuming the very effective current leadership is given plenty of room to implement their long-term development policies.

Hashtags #RwandansDecide and #TwitorereYego were the most trending highlights throughout the week, especially Thursday and Friday, as I was navigating through my other Twitter headlines.

It’s clear that #TwitorereYego is not just another pass/fail elections agenda.

This is called taking a stand, being a leading population – not a West follower. This emphasizes that Rwandans have deeply got to understand whose team fought for this remarkable security, stability and economic growth since the inception; and that they are willing to give it all that it takes to keep it for the very-very long-run.

Well done, Rwanda!

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