Nigeria 5th happiest country in Africa – UN World Happiness Report

The United Nations World Happiness Report shows that Nigeria now ranks the fifth happiest country in the African continent. The Report indicates that Nigeria is a happier country now than the previous years.

The WHR is a United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Initiative that surveys the state of global happiness in about 156 countries using six indicators – per capita gross domestic product; healthy life expectancy; freedom; generosity; social support and absence of corruption in government or business.

However, these indicators are questionable of the UN report conclusion on the Nigerian situation. When these variables are juxtaposed with the realities in the country, the opposite could be the outcome. Thus, the UN report does not reflect realities on the streets of Nigeria, essentially, with the increasing hardship and killings and destruction of property by Fulani herdsmen in the country. Today, in Nigeria, more people are mourning the dead than celebrating; more are in anguish than rejoicing.

People mourning the dead and lamenting destruction of their property cannot be happy.

Perhaps, the UN data collation was subjective.

However, the 2017 report (tracking 2014 – 2016) ranks Nigeria as the 95th happiest country in the world and 5th in Africa. This reflects a presumed improvement from the previous ranking in 2016 (tracking 2013 – 2015) which ranked Nigeria 103rd and 6th in Africa.

 Nigeria scored 5.074 points on the 0 to 10 scale, compared to the 4.875 recorded in the 2016 report

Nigeria is one of the 58 countries, according to the report, that made “significant increases, ranging from 0.12 to 1.36 points.”