The Misery of Nigerian Cheerfulness

If a Nigerian were to learn about the existence of a newfoundland called Eudamonia in God knows where, where happiness, laughter and festivities were the order of the day and night; before one could manage to sneeze out Goodluck Jonathan, hordes and colonies of Nigerians would have taken all over the landscape. Such is our love of life that we will do anything, short of the suicidal, in the pursuit and arrest of happiness. We, just like every other sane earthling, relish the importance of sensual pleasures – the pleasures of taste (edikaikong, pounded yam and big stout); sexual pleasure (ikebe super, ijebu chewing stick, omoge); the pleasure of hearing (highlife music, afro beat, fuji, owambe); the sweet emotions caused by the sight of beautiful forms (physiological, architectural and natural).

An original son of the Nigerian soil, in the person of Femi Anikulapo Kuti, once said during an interview on BBC Radio that he refused to believe that the members of the Boko Haram sect were Nigerians. This belief was anchored on the fact that Nigerians were people who loved to lead a happy existence. Such an existence might perhaps be defined as one which would be decidedly preferable to non-existence; implying that we should cling to it for its own sake, and not merely from the fear of death, and further, that we should never like it to come to an end. Contrarily, there is a school of thought which holds that coming into existence is always a serious harm, and that it would have been better not to have been born. The Boko Haram, in their metaphysical garb, could be seen as nearly approximating this philosophical view but because of the absolute lack of method in their madness, it is impossible to describe them as anything but murderous misanthropes.

Eudaemonology is the theory of the art of ordering our lives so as to obtain the greatest amount of pleasure and success. It teaches us how to lead a happy existence. The purpose of human life is the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit is twofold: the maximization of pleasure; and the minimization of pain. Apart from the congenital propensity of Nigerians to happiness, there are other variables which when resourcefully procured and harnessed, will lead to the maximization of pleasure. But there are limits to how much individuals can boost their own happiness, and that leaves a role for government.

In a world wide investigation of socio-cultural and political change conducted by an international network of social scientists in 2003, it was found out that the happiest people in the world lived in Nigeria (oropesije: the proposition swallows explanation). In 2014, Nigeria's economy (GDP) became the largest in Africa, worth more than 500 billion dollars, and overtook South Africa to become the world's 21^st largest economy.

At this juncture, let us pause and reflect on the Nigerian spirit, survivability and cheerfulness. How come that in the midst of so much inequality, oppression, poverty, exploitation and corruption, the average Nigerian experiences, at most optimism of strength. Having being denied access to the most basic necessities of life, and having suffered appreciably from a peculiar sense of dislocation, total disassociation and non-participation, he is psychologically driven to pursue happiness, and remains only happy at the thought of this pursuit which is , at best, a tantalizing will-o-the-wisp. This general predisposition of the people to cheerfulness could be traced to sadness, inveterate pain, privation, deficiency and melancholy. The Nigerian cheerfulness (suffering and smiling) is therefore an expression of a state of endangered comfort.

Government, they say, is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees. And both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people. Therefore, ask not what you can do for your country; ask what your country can do for you. The government has been involved, of late in a series of narcissistic self-congratulations; firstly, because of the aforementioned increase in the GDP, and secondly because of its success in combating the ebola scourge. But the question still remains: is it not a function of the state to promote the happiness of its citizens? Should the state not also see as the centrepiece of its domestic policy the need to ensure a sustainable growth in the Gross Domestic Happiness? Whosai! Instead the primus inter pares of the trustees has become more catholic than the pope in his efforts to narcotize the misfortunes of Nigerians. The downtrodden soul of the Nigerian man needs to prostrate itself in veneration before some shrine, be it okija, ogun or our Lady of the Apostles. Religion now provides the greatest source of lasting happiness, and he who is lucky enough to survive Goodluck's corruption is told on sunday that the Lord chasteneth those He loves. If you have a facebook account, you will see it printed in black and white at the beginning of every month with a picture of bills of dollars that if you type amen, that will be your month of financial prosperity. Some other times, it is the picture of a car's key. You are again requested by the pastor to type amen and you will gain possession of the car. Then you see Nigerians in their thousands, some with multiple accounts, typing amen amen amen amen. One would have thought that apart from being the happiest people in the whole world, Nigerians were also the smartest. Whosai!

Epicurus, the great professor of happiness, maintains that the aim of happiness is not the positive pursuit of pleasure but rather the absence of pain, a neutral state he calls “ataraxia,” which is freedom from all worry, which can be achieved through philosophical contemplation rather than through pursuit of crass physical pleasures or the primitive accumulation of wealth.

While in the vortex of this rat race which is further worsened by the government insensitivity to sensitive situations and the pastor's abracadabra, the victims will sooner or later be overcome by either a physical illness or an intense psychological/emotional pain. The greatest remedy proferred by one of the greatest philosophical minds that ever graced our planet, in the person of Friedrich Nietzsche is what he called “Russian fatalism”. This is but a variant of Nigerian survivability popularly referred to as “siddon look”. Who utilizes such a remedy ceases the attempt to cure himself and simply lies down and accepts his sickness and pain and inhibits any physical or emotional reaction whatsoever. In doing so, he conserves precious energy and hastens his recovery.

Nigerians still remain the happiest people in the world, no thanks to the state. Our siddon look attitude should not be mistaken for apathy or lethargy. Even though our pursuit of eudamonia takes us to Utopia and Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey, God, in His infinite wisdom, will never allow us to get to the promised land until we are able to guarantee ourselves and posterity that the land of our birth is the land of the greatest happiness of the greatest number.