•Nigerians await 2017 World Happiness Report
By Cosmas Omegoh
Some Nigerians insinuate that they are unhappy. Many times they are quick to point out the myriad of challenges buffeting them as reasons for being unhappy. They have accusing the current economic recession in the country for their fate. They dismiss suggestions that they are a happy people, preferring to believe that they are suffering.
But soon, Nigeria and Nigerians will be told how happy or unhappy they are. The United Nations will be doing so through its World Happiness Report. The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network will say where Nigeria stands in the ranking of the world’s happy people.
Last year, the country placed 103rd in the world in the league of happy people and 6th in Africa in an update that ranked 157 countries.
The country’s rating was a far cry from its 2003 performance, which saw it rank the happiest country in the world. It was such an unexpected declaration that it left Nigerians and the rest of the world in shock. It was the UK-based New Scientific magazine that made the pronouncement.
The New Scientific magazine claimed its findings were derived from a study conducted between 1999 and 2001 in 65 countries across the world. It maintained that the outcome of the research revealed that the happiest people in the world lived in Nigeria, thus sparking a wave of controversies from many Nigerians.
Daily Sun learnt that the survey report was a “worldwide investigation of socio-cultural and political change conducted about every four years by an international network of social scientists. It includes questions about how happy people are and how satisfied they are with their lives.”
The New Scientific magazine’s claim sent surprised Nigerians wondering whether those who conducted the research were real or imaginary. Some even doubted the parameters employed, fearing that they might have been faulty, if not altogether deceptive.
Based on this, many could not take the suggestion that Nigerians were a happy people. “This can’t be true,” some loudly protested. Not when Nigeria was firmly in the grip of bad leadership that drove the country to the point of decay, leaving every strand of the Nigerian economy dripping with the putrid waters of corruption. And the result has been evident: roads in most parts of the country are in a terrible state. Electricity supply is epileptic and far from satisfactory. Badly-needed public services remain comatose. They are clearly no sources of joy and happiness. All these cast a shadow of doubt on the ‘happiest-people-live-in-Nigeria’ report.
Apparently buoyed by the excitement the New Scientific magazine survey generated, the United Nations General Assembly, Daily Sun learnt, “passed a resolution inviting member countries to measure the happiness index of their people and to use this to help guide public policies.
So on April 2, 2012, the first UN high-level meeting on “Happiness and Well-Being: Defining a New Economic Paradigm,” was held. The report was published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
It was learnt that the first World Happiness report was released on April 1, 2012, as a foundational text for the meeting. It drew international attention as the world’s first global happiness survey. The report outlined the state of world happiness, causes of happiness and misery, and policy implications highlighted by case studies.
In September 2013, the second World Happiness Report offered the first annual follow-up and reports are now issued every year. The report uses data from the Gallup World Poll.
In the 2013 World Happiness Report, Nigeria was ranked 82nd among the countries sampled, falling behind countries like Libya, Jordan, Algeria, and Mauritius.
In 2015, 158 countries across the world were sampled. Nigeria was ranked 75th and the fourth in Africa. Switzerland was rated the world’s happiest with Togo finishing in the 158th place.
In 2016, a slide in fortunes was already well on its way for Nigeria and many Nigerians, with the country plummeting into economic recession. This reflected in the World Happiness Report released in Rome, Italy, on March 20, 2016, in which Nigeria was placed 103rd in the world and the sixth in Africa in an update that ranked 157 countries.
Now, the 2017 World Happiness Report is underway nd the refrain on every lip seems to be, how will Nigeria fare in this year’s edition, amid hunger and deprivation in the land? Over the past months most citizens’ income sources have shrunk because of job losses. The naira, the national currency, is depreciating daily at a dizzying pace. The people’s standard of living keeps falling every passing day; available infrastructure is experiencing depreciation.
With the situation looking grim, can Nigerian retain or improve on its 2016 103rd position? To a clinical psychologist, Dr. Charles Umeh, the expectation is doubtful: “As it stands, Nigerians can’t be said to be happy in the right sense. The signs are there for everyone to see. Everywhere one turns, there is unprovoked aggression. When you see two people bump into each other, simply look at how they react with amazing, unprovoked aggression. People who are happy don’t behave that way.”
Umeh admitted that he could not understand the parameters that the researchers at the UK-based magazine employed in 2003 to arrive at the conclusion that Nigerians were a happy people. He maintained that there was probably no scientific explanation for their action. He opined that, at best, the researchers conducted a vox pop, which was far from capturing the true mood of things at the time.
Having said that, he expressed the belief that happiness is a relative term, it does not spring from the quantum of money one has, but being able to solve one’s immediate problems.
“The ability of a human to solve their problems determines how happy they are. A happy person is one who has been able to deal with their problems. That makes them happy. And what it means is that a man might be materially poor yet happy, while a man might be materially rich yet unhappy.
“Happiness, therefore, is a state of the mind that arises if one is able to solve their health, physiological needs, including ability to sleep, clothe and feed themselves and share healthy inter-personal relationships with others. It could be the ability to solve a physical problem, among which is passing an examination.
“One is happy to the extent that one is able to exercise absolute control over one’s problems. The problem might be there but not overwhelming. In that case, the person is happy. For instance, if a child is passing his examinations, he is happy going to school.”
But even in the face of mounting challenges believed to be confronting many Nigerians at the moment, the university don said: “You can’t say categorically that Nigerians are happy or unhappy. But, basically, whereas some are happy, some are sad. If you look at what is happening around you, the clear picture tells you whether people are happy or sad.
“I have seen people complain about situations around them, meaning that they are unhappy, especially because of the harsh economic realities in the country. For instance, there is no hospital in the country at moment, be it private or public, where anyone will go for medical care without dropping a huge amount of money to be treated. You look at the state of the roads and what people do there gives serious cause for concern. You are a businessman and you see that your business has been adversely affected because the naira is exchanging at N500 for one US dollar. Every Nigerian is seeing that the prices of goods and services are going through the roof; they get home to discover that they can’t get electricity supply for one straight hour. Now tell me, what sector of the economy can anyone wholeheartedly say is booming now? What could be the sources of unhappiness other than these?
“But there some people who are benefitting largely from this debacle. They are happy that this situation is in place. They are in the minority. So a people are judged to be happy if the majority is happy.
Umeh, however, praised Nigerians for their resilience: “In most overseas countries, for instance, people can buy houses on mortgage; but not here. There is social security for everyone, but not here.
“What might stagger a Nigerian would instantly break an American. This might be because we have some sort of social support. We easily run to our brothers and sisters and even our churches for assistance each time we have challenges. That you can get abroad where people believe in hope and what they can do for themselves. But that might not suggest that we are any inch happier than they are. I have my doubts that we are. As for the 2017 World Happiness Report, I’m looking to see how it turns out.”