What
makes the Nigerians
the happiest of all people?
By
Jonathan
Power
January 2, 2004
IDAH, KOGI STATE, NIGERIA - I am sitting here, my
laptop open on my knee, sheltered from the baking sun by
a great shade tree in this upcountry village, twelve
hours drive inland from Lagos, determined before
Christmas to find an answer to that elusive question that
has pursued mankind down the ages: what makes for human
happiness? There is a good and sensible reason to believe
I might uncover the answer here- or at least some of
it.
The World Values Survey, an inter-university study,
recently issued a report in which it found that Nigerians
are the happiest people in the world. (The Americans are
16th on their list, the British 24th and the Russians the
unhappiest. The survey, which has studied happiness since
1945, finds that it has not increased in Europe and North
America even though the societies have become wealthier.
The desire for material goods, it concludes, is "a
happiness suppressant".)
Buy why Nigeria? Everyone I pass in this village of
approximately 5,000 says hello to me often with a smile,
and yet I know many of them barely have enough to eat. I
have just been given lunch by the headmaster of the local
technical school, Peter Ikani, cooked by his 28 year old
daughter, Ele. It is simple fare but a rather delicious
hot peppered goat stew served with yams. Peter apologies
for receiving me in his "hovel" (which it is, even by the
standards of this village) and explains that teachers are
badly paid and often paid late. Peter is well read,
thoughtful and religious. Ele is highly articulate and
perceptive yet, unable to find the finance to go to
university, has a low level job in the Social Insurance
Trust Fund in the capital, Abuja, five hours away. Yes,
they both say earnestly, Nigerians are a happy people.
Peter puts it down to God and music. "We have a great
religious faith. Whether we are Christians like us or
Muslims as in the north, we all believe ardently that God
is looking after us. We believe in being our brother's
keeper". Ele is perhaps more perceptive, "people smile at
you because that is the way they deal with the awful
stress in their poverty stricken life. I can take you to
people in the village who are hungry, who are not happy,
and God is just in their lives to give them solace. One
reason why many of us are happy is that we don't ask for
much. If God gives us food we easily become happy. We are
not greedy."
A few days earlier I was in Abuja eating in a local
open air fish restaurant with the daughter of an Ibo
king, together with an engineer and a successful business
woman. All of them believe Nigerians are unusually happy.
Princess Gloria said, "You see it in how we move. It's a
movement inside us and in society. We feel full of music
and love of God. Her friend, the business woman, added,
"We Nigerians look after each other. If I know you and
you are hungry or ill I will try and help". The engineer
said: "It was in our old tribal traditions and religion
built on that. Have you ever seen such a religious
people? (I confess I haven't.) Of course it goes too far
in many cases and we become too fatalistic."
I walked the streets. I stopped the young men selling
newspapers and phone cards and at one point was accosted
by a talkative beggar. None said they were happy. "We are
too hot and have no money". I quizzed them on how many
cell phone cards they sell a day- "three or four", which
I calculate gives them a daily income of less than $3 a
day.
At the Nigerian newspaper editors' forum where I had
been invited to speak, the previous speaker, a freedom of
information advocate, said, "I read about the survey. I
was surprised and not surprised. If you look at our
problems it is unimaginable to say we are happy. But then
Nigerians appear to have developed a very thick skin.
Fela, the great singer of the 1970s, had a song, 'We
suffer and we smile'".
Last Sunday I attended church with President Olusegun
Obasanjo, a man who became a born-again Christian and
Baptist preacher whilst in prison under the rule of the
late military dictator, Sani Abacha. Behind his gruff
exterior, he is a man of great personal compassion and in
his three years of captivity he became an unofficial
chaplain to the tortured and the condemned. "I am happy",
he said in his weekly sermon, "but the only time I have
had real joy in my life was when I was in prison. I felt
then there was just God and me and my fellow prisoners
whom I must try and help."
I can see all the ifs and buts and have heard all the
caveats, but "yes" I conclude, Nigeria has tasted
happiness, and more than most.
I can be reached by phone +44
7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
Copyright © 2004 By
JONATHAN POWER
Follow this
link to read about - and order - Jonathan Power's book
written for the
40th Anniversary of
Amnesty International
"Like
Water on Stone - The Story of Amnesty
International"
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