An example that comes to mind is a situation where we refuse to pay attention to the less fortunate people in our neighbourhoods. If every single person in the elite of our society will take care of at least one child, most of the street kids would be taken care of. Yet, we act as if it is none of our business.
Have you ever met anybody from your country complaining about why the nation is not working? Hey, could that person be you?
I personally had fallen victim to this line of reasoning for a considerable amount of time in my life. As the years went by though, I discovered that, as with many other things, I had simply fallen victim of my environment. I saw people around me blame the nation and everything else that is wrong in the country on one person or the other, and I had simply joined them. I heard them talk about it, I witnessed them playing the blame game, and I joined them, on and on it went.
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” – 1 Cor 13:11
However thank God for understanding, thank God for insight, thank God for education. After getting myself relatively educated in the area of National Transformation, I have come to discover that it makes better sense to look at what I could do to fix the problem of the society, rather than blaming others for what is wrong in the country.
As a matter of fact I never seriously thought about the word ‘responsibility’ until I was doing my masters in the university. I was fortunate to listen to a man address the issue of men’s responsibility. The word seems so common and popular that I never thought it needed much attention, but the more I studied it the more I discovered, ‘hey! Wait a minute, I never really knew anything about the true meaning of the word’. At least my life style did not show any form of responsibility for the nation where I was born or the nation where I lived.
Today, I can joyfully say that one of the best undertakings I have ever made was to study the subject of responsibility. As obvious as my assertion in this article is, so many people still don’t think very seriously about the fact that Personal Responsibility is one of the most essential credential in National Transformation.
The now famous and widely used quotation of John F. Kennedy “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” is probably the most circulated quotation on the subject of Personal Responsibility of a citizen towards his nation. If a nation, and any nation for that matter, could raise up the standard of Personal Responsibility in their society, you will in no time see a country of virtuous people, developed and civilised.
“The price of greatness is responsibility.” ― Winston S. Churchill
As an African, that is probably one quality that sends the first shock-waves through the spine of an immigrant from a developing country coming to Europe. The level of Personal Responsibility in developed countries is averagely much higher than is seen in developing nations.
“A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” – Bob Dylan
Personal Responsibility of each citizen before the nation is usually well defined in all developed nations. In many other countries, such a statement as was made by John F. Kennedy would have gone unnoticed, because to most people Personal Responsibility of a citizen towards the nation does not really mean anything. Which explains why most citizens of such nations play the blame game.
If you are reading this article, it is my believe that you must be interested in the transformation of your nation. If that is the case then you must start with yourself. The most obvious question of a responsible person is what can I do in this situation? The more we can ask such questions, the more we bring about change where we are. Instead of expecting someone from somewhere to spearhead or bring about a change that we desire, it is much more practical to begin to do something personally.
“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.” ― Sigmund Freud
At this junction, I would like us to look into the definition of the phrase Personal Responsibility:
Personal Responsibility is the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone.
Personal Responsibility is the state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something.
Personal Responsibility is the state of being the person who caused something to happen.
Personal Responsibility is a duty or task that you are required or expected to do.
Personal Responsibility is something that you should do because it is morally right, legally required, etc.
Personal Responsibility is the individual desire to be in charge or in control of an action or situation.
Personal Responsibility is the acknowledgement of the fact that I am personally responsible for what is happening in my life, in my surrounding and in my nation.
Personal Responsibility is an act of being responsible for results and consequences of your decisions, actions and in-actions in a given situation or circumstance.
Personal Responsibility is when an individual volunteers to be in charge of duties, tasks and is ready to see to its fulfillment.
Personal Responsibility is when a person refuses to submit his life into the hands of others, but would prefer to rather be a man and provide for his own needs.
Personal Responsibility is when a person refuses to run away from challenges and difficulties; when he refuses to blame others; when he decides to rise to the occasion.
Personal Responsibility is when a person sees a problem and refuses to be indifferent, but decides to rather look for ways and means of resolving the problem.
A responsible citizen is one who sees something wrong in society, something he is not satisfied with or that he cannot agree with and responds not by blaming the government or leaders, but by designing ways and means of bringing a lasting solution to the issues at hand.
For a nation to be truly transformed, there must be movements, civil society groups, NGOs etc. that are spread all across the land to educate people on the issues of Personal Responsibility. If a nation or rather active citizens of a nation could successfully launch such campaigns and a good percentage of the populace begin to live by the principles of Personal Responsibility, which is “don’t blame others”, think of what you can do to fix it, such a nation would cross the huddle of civilisation in a record time.
Dear reader, if you are reading this article, are you going to begin with yourself by responding rather creatively to the issues you see around your nation? It is easy to say, but there is no way I could personally address every single problem in my nation, they are too many. Oh yea, you cannot fix all problems, but you can fix some problems, more importantly you could bring enlightenment to all others around you.
“Choices may be unbelievably hard, but they’re never impossible. To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that’s not how a person with integrity acts.” ― Patrick Ness
If each one, in your area of influence, would offer to do at least something about what they have a burden for, soon everybody in the nation would be doing something, leading to a massive movement of enterprises, entrepreneurship, services, charities, etc.
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” – Abraham Lincoln
The truth is that everyone, if he is human must be aware of his own responsibility for himself, for others, for all and for something. That is a part of what makes us human. This is because we are created to become an answer and a solution to some needs or the other in the world. We are all here to make our world a better place. If you would not take action and responsibility for those things you were created for, that does not mean you escape the responsibility, you still face that responsibility one way or the other. Unfortunately this realisation often comes in form of regret, pain and sorrow.
“Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.” ― Hubert Selby Jr.
An example that comes to mind is a situation where we refuse to pay attention to the less fortunate people in our neighbourhoods. If every single person in the elite of our society will take care of at least one child, most of the street kids would be taken care of. Yet, we act as if it is none of our business.
Truly in the short term, there tends to be no consequences to our act of irresponsibility. However in the long run most of those kids become grownups and the fearful nocturnal visitors with weapons attacking the same neighborhood, raping our daughters and wives, maiming our sons and husbands, turning our lives into a nightmare. Our response? Another blame game. We turn our attention to the government and we whine about the incompetence of the police, we also complain about the breakdown in law and order. Yet, we forget that we actually had a role to play in the consequences we are reaping.
“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Sunday Adelaja is a Nigeria born leader, transformation strategist, pastor and innovator. He is based in Kiev, Ukraine. He can be contacted at sundayadelajablog@gmail.com.
