Remember that 2003 New Scientist survey which suggested that Nigerians are the the happiest people on earth? I'm not sure how many Nigerians actually believed that. But a lot of us did reference it once in a while to buttress our bonhomie nature. Well, Forbes magazine thought ten years was enough for us to bask in that euphoria. So, in January this year Forbes burst our bubble by informing us that Nigeria is now twentieth among the saddest nations on earth. So much for (un)happiness surveys!Well, my intention is not to ask what, if anything, has changed with the Nigerian peoples and/or character in the last ten years to warrant such a swift shift from one extreme to the other, but to revisit the perennial question: How is it possible for such happiness (with or without the New Scientist survey) that we witness in Nigeria to co-exist with the obvious hardships most Nigerians experience?
No doubt, there are as many responses to the question as there are Nigerians, and more. It's said that joy and smiles are of God. Cheerfulness has a gravitational pull to it, like nectar attracting the bee. Little wonder we are naturally drawn to joyful people. Joy is spiritual, as well as valuable in our spiritual life. And as James Martin, SJ, puts it in his Between Heaven and Mirth, "Joy is happiness in God." This joy exists even in the midst of suffering.
And this is where Fela's classic hit, Shuffering and shmiling comes to mind. Although Fela used that to decry particularly the psycho-financial exploitations of the people by their religious leaders (all in the name of God)--a phenomenon still rife in contemporary Nigeria--it brings to the fore the question of the relationship between religion and the endurance of hardship, the link between happiness and belief in God.
If as the renowned African theologian, John Mbiti, once said, that Africans are notoriously religious, and if happiness is of God, could our "religiousness" (notoriously so) in any way explain the New Scientist survey, our incessant shuffering and shmiling, and why the merchandizing of God remains a most lucrative business in Nigeria today? Are we a happy people because we are overly religious? And how has our approach to popular piety affected us as a nation, for good or bad?
Let us know what you think.
Everyday na the same thing!
ReplyDeleteIts actually very difficult to suffer and at the same time smile. I doubt if as Nigerians we have ever been the happiest. We are always sad and of course a sad heart cannot really be religious at heart. We have only accepted our shuffering and pretend to shmile since na the same thing everyday. God save us!
ReplyDeleteReligion. Karl Marx called it opium of the masses.
ReplyDeleteOur so-called religious leaders are living off their people's sweat. I doubt if our smiles really go deep enough.
ReplyDelete