Rwanda just had its annual national dialogue, “Omushyrikirano” they call it. This one was the 12th.

The idea, on the face of it, is simple. For two days, the government leaders and state bureaucrats gather in a vast hall, to explain to the country what the government has been doing, what it has achieved, why it has failed to deliver, and so on.

There are a couple of satellite sites set around the country where the people gather and, through a video conference link, ask the big men and women in Kigali questions. President Paul Kagame chairs the proceedings.

Rwandans come from the diaspora for the Omushyikirano and, in a truly quirky feature, even representatives of Rwandan refugees abroad come home for the event, basically to dip a toe in the water, and then go back to the Rwandan refugee communities and advise them whether to return home or not!

The event, as Carlos Lopes, the executive secretary of the Addis Ababa-headquartered United Nations Economic Commission for Africa put it, is a salutary example of “participatory democracy.” Lopes was one of the guest speakers.

And in many ways, it is a big political event. A lot of mega data is rolled out. One of the eye-poppers was Kagame reporting that the Rwanda digital land registry is on target —the country has now titled 90 per cent of its land and issued 6 million land titles.

Not only is that an Africa record, but also it is among the top in the world.

There was only one problem —Kagame was behind the times. The land titles are approaching 7 million, and the percentage of land titled is over 95 per cent. Given that the country’s population is around 12 million, that means there is a land title for every 1.7 Rwandans.

But things are not always what they are cracked up to be.

Kagame’s pleas for participants to focus on the mighty issues presented, followed by similar entreaties by Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo, who also pleaded that those asking questions be crisp and specific, were foiled by the people.

A woman from a satellite station said she had heard all the nice reports from the president, prime minister and other speakers, but she had a problem: “What can I take back to my people?” In other words, she wanted some potato and beans issues to take to her voters at the grassroots. The hall erupted in laughter.

It was also clear that the idea of “asking a specific direct question” is actually too elitist. Like other ordinary Africans, the “small” Rwanda’s idea of a question is a thank you, half-speech, half-complaint, and half-expose.

That said, the report of the prime minister on the resolutions from last year’s national dialogue was surprisingly granular; about saving clubs opened in schools (601 of them), 39 corruption cases filed in court, and the Ministry of Justice publishing the names of the corrupt on its website, shaming them and demanding they pay back the people’s money.

The event turned to be a subtle contest between big politics and retail chicken and goats politics. What is more important? A plate full of potatoes and beans, a stolen peasant’s chicken, or rosy GDP data?

Charles Onyango-Obbo is editor of Mail & Guardian Africa (mgafrica.com)

Twitter: @cobbo3