A few years back Nigerian newspapers were awash we news that Nigerians were rated as the happiest people on earth. Just yesterday there was another report (source unknown) alleging that Nigeria has the highest population of depressed people in Africa. I have strong doubt about this latest report the same way I doubted the earlier report granting us the ‘happiness bazaar’. I questioned the authenticity of both reports because there is no correlation between the Nigeria that I live in and these fabricated reports. Who conducted these researches and what were the indices used? I get a feeling that some smart Alecs could develop brain waves and cook up reports that they feed to undiscerning Nigerians who in any case never question the source of any report. We are in the post truth era undoubtedly, but even at that we are obliged to question the ‘known known, known unknown and the unknown unknown’ (apologies to Donald Rumsfeld)

So unto Google I went to search the World Happiness Report (WHR) for 2012 to 2017 to known how a nation of happy-go-lucky people went full circle in less than half a decade. The facts that popped up justified my inquiry.  The WHR reported a disturbing finding about Africa, that happiness is less evident on the continent than the rest of the world as Africa stands as the continent with the least happy people. In the 2017 report, Nigeria ranks as the ninety-fifth happiest nation globally and the sixth in Africa sandwiched between Somalia and South Africa. The report stated that in the last decade, only two African countries have made significant gains in happiness. Nigeria not being one of the two has made a modest gain of 0.3%. The index revealed that on a scale of 0-10, Nigeria stands at between 5.0 and 5.03 a far cry from Norway at 7.537. As expected, African nations took vantage positions at the lower end of the ladder.

The most interesting aspect of the 2017 report is the evaluation of what enhances happiness among People. The report identified the following areas;

• Social support as in having people around that could be counted on for support during times of trouble. Remember the song ‘Lean on me’?
• Freedom to make choices: Making choices of where to live, where to work, who to marry, career, religion and educational pursuit, etc. Just the ability to make a choice
• Generosity: The art of giving, and the act of giving. The report identified that those who give derive more happiness from the act of giving than those who receive
• Economic well being; of course, a good job, sustainable business, luxury living, money and fleet of cars add spice to life. We all know that economic wellbeing is premised on good governance, a reduction of corruption and of course, good old hard work.
• Healthy Life: We are happier when we are in good health. The report identified a correlation between good health and each of the other factors. I mean we are healthier when we give or receive social support, when we are free to make choices, when we are generous or receive generosity and of course when the economic situation around us is on the upswing.

One of the few facts I discerned from the 2017 WHR is that Nigeria or any African nation has never been near the top of the World Happiness Index, that section of the ladder has been the exclusive preserve of the Scandinavian countries. These are countries with strong welfare systems and fantastic social support for the citizenry. The likelihood of any African nation moving to that section of the ladder is remote given that our leaders prefer to bask in the euphoria of false reports than face the basic requirement of offering good governance.

Nevertheless, the bulk of the feel good’ factors are people driven. Social support used to be the pinnacle of African brotherhood but we are in a new age characterized by selfishness, greed and loneliness. Most of our countrymen who are turning the third mainland bridge in Lagos and other such monuments around Nigeria to ‘suicide tourist destinations’ are doing so because we have ceased to be our neighbor’s keeper. Sometimes what our distressed neighbors need is not money but a listening ear or a shoulder to lean on. I am very certain that the recession has not reduced the width of our shoulders.

As we start the weekend I plead with you, make out some time to visit a friend, relation or neighbor. Don’t just use the entire weekend to attend night vigils and church services. If you do that and still fail to look after your neighbor, Christ will call you to account on the last day.  Keeping aside the toga of religion, I plead that we all take a break from sending viral social media messages to offer genuine empathy and support to other people. Make it a point of duty to put a smile on the face of someone today in the process you might just be saving a life.