Today I read from a man I have enormous respect for. Some of his lines got me.
He said;
"You must know what your duties and personal responsibilities are before knowing what your rights are."
He went ahead to add:
"It is your duties and responsibilities that guarantee your survival, growth, and prosperity, not your rights."
It reminded me of a fellow who once came to me to express his rage over a guy he sold a product to on credit. The buyer agreed to bring him cash at a certain location the following day.
The said day came, and the buyer, rather than coming to the location they agreed upon, called him, requesting that he walk down to an ATM stand, which is a few miles from the agreed location, so he could get his money.
My friend was fuming in outright indignation.
After he vented to me, I asked him, "Do you want your money or your rights?"
Like a spell, the fury suddenly left him. His eyes cleared, I believe. He said nothing, but quietly left me and walked towards the cash machine.
And that was the last I heard of the matter.
I'm not in any way justifying the buyer's action. Of course, my friend was within his rights to be furious. However, the fury would've given him nothing. His money would've remained longer in the other guy's hand. And that's a situation he didn't want.
As we grow older, we must do our utmost to avoid being impulsive. Impulsiveness is for kids. Adults shouldn't act solely on their emotions.
An adult has to weigh every action before opting for the one with the best dividends. Sometimes the one with better dividends will require that you lay down your rights or ego.
In Nigeria and other climes, we live in a society where our rights are perpetually trampled upon. As much as we have to agitate for better treatments from time to time, agitation can't be all we know to do. We must look for legitimate ways to beat the odds and survive, grow, and prosper.
If you've observed, you've probably noticed that rights are people's (individuals or entities') duties and responsibilities to us. We mustn't be fixated on that to the point of forgetting our duties to ourselves and to our society. Society might fail you, but you must refuse to fail yourself.
It's a fact that you have little control over how people or the society you live in choose to treat you. What's within you is your disposition in all of it. And that's where your responsibility kicks in.
Over the years, you might have invested time in learning how you want to be treated and how you'd like your country or the world to be. I know that you've always been disappointed because people rarely act the way we'd love them to, and society rarely behaves to our taste.
Now, it's time to be more vested in your own duties and responsibilities. Do all you can to carry them out, because that's the only way you can survive, grow, and prosper.