This weekend, Sunday to be specific, Nigerians will join other citizens of the world to celebrate the United Nations World Happiness Day on March 20th and as build up to the day, the World Happiness Report 2016 was released and it showed that Nigeria ranked 103 globally. ‘Not bad’ you may say but a state of emergency needs to be declared urgently since Nigeria ranked 78 last year. What happened between then and now?
Out of curiosity, I decided to find out how Nigerians faired prior to 2015 and I discovered that we ranked 82 in 2013. So between 2013 and 2015, Nigerians were happier but we got saddened between 2015 and 2016. Even though it is difficult to agree with a report on happiness, the fact remains that a lot has happened between last year and this year. For instance, there is a new president, the Naira is shaky, fuel queues refuse to go, Chelsea and Arsenal Football Clubs are no longer in the Champions League and many civil servants are yet to receive any salaries this year. Nigeria lost several great monarchs by the way. There are more than enough reasons to be unhappy.
Even at that, those that produced the report said it was based on individual responses to a global poll conducted by Gallup. Which meant that depending on who you talk to, the answers you will get may vary. Take for instance the guys at S&T Media who just raised $1 million seed funding; family members that will benefit from Uber Family Profiles; the 10 startups that joined CcHub’s Growth Academy; the hub’s management as they expand to Abuja; the women celebrated by Konga; or Angie Nwandu and others that made TIME’s list of 30 influential people on the internet; or Lagosians when they heard about the Lagos scenes in the latest Captain America movie.
On the other hand, the candidates that technology did not work in favour of during the ongoing JAMB UTME exams may not be happy but the decision of the Nigerian lawmakers to call for the suspension of the computer-based tests may be a welcomed development.
It is obvious that happiness is momentary and someone that was unhappy at noon may become happy at 12:01. As far as Nigerians are concerned, whether it is about the country’s GDP per capita (the rawest measure of a nation’s wealth); healthy years of life expectancy; social support (as measured by having someone to count on in times of trouble); trust (as measured by perceived absence of corruption in government and business); perceived freedom to make life choices; and generosity (as measured by donations); Nigerians – wailers and change advocates – are able to set their unhappiness aside to enjoy the subpar Nigerian movies like AY’s 30 Days Atlanta on Friday evening, a hot plate of pepper soup on Saturday, and praise and worship session during the first service on Sunday which coincidentally is this year’s World Happiness Day.
