“His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio, let me once again welcome you and your delegation to Rwanda. I also thank you for honouring us with your presence at our 25th Liberation Day Celebrations. Rwanda and Sierra Leone have much in common, we share the history of violent conflict as well as the determination to work towards a brighter future of our people.  

“Your visit here, Mr President, is important because it allows us to reinforce our bilateral relations and we wish to build on the existing brotherly ties and our partnership in sharing experience,” he said.

In his response, President Bio thanked host President Kagame for the warm reception and hospitality accorded him and his delegation since they arrived in Rwanda, one of the best performing nations on the African continent, according to 2018 global prosperity index.

“We are here to seek partnership. We have identified a few countries and leaders as progressive and going forward we would want to make sure that we engage and share experiences. You represent Africa as one of those progressive leaders who took up governance almost at a time when it was impossible to do anything.

“We have admired you from afar and I am here to look at how you’ve done these things, to share your leadership, the technicians and different departments and how you have been able to take them from where we saw Rwanda to where it is today,” said President Bio.

Rwanda was one of three countries whose National Unity and Reconciliation Commission representative shared their experiences with Sierra Leone at the 23-25 May 2019 Bintumani III Conference, a two-day national dialogue forum in Freetown on democratic consolidation for peace and national cohesion.