JosBoy4lif, I am far from materialist. I made the statement about people wanting massive houses and luxury cars because I felt that would be something that even though not everyone could directly relate to, they at the very least would understand why many have a strong desire for those items.

Also, I bet if you were sent back 500 years in time, you will feel that your life sucks. Even if you were an emperor or something. After, laying there for weeks as your body is being destroyed by malaria (with no cure at the time) would definitely put a damper on your happiness.

Again, you proved my point about Ignorance being bliss by pointing most of our happiest moments in life are when we are children.

How did i prove ur point, on the contrary. Children are much diifferent that adults, What makes them happy is moms nunu and their diaper being changed,
Number one many africans a sickle cell carriers therefore having immunity to malaria, unfortunately im not,

500's back i would feel my life sucks, what are trying to say here man? they had herbal treatment for malaria way b4 oyinbo man came, again u need to know ur history of ur so called defunct country b4 you speak anyhow.

I don't have a desire to be rich and poweful, rather i want to be succesful that does not mean that i have to be the richest, Again to me its all vanity, thereby not proving ur point. A babies memory is not fully present. I bet you can't remember what you did when you were 1, but here you are saying that is true happiness?

Afeni,

It isn't true at all that Nigerians don't know what's going on in other countries. On the contrary, they know and probably even think too much of other countries. For example, Nigerians tend to believe that if you can just get to America, your life would be good. I've heard people say they don't mind washing plates there. Plus, Nigerians crave the best things of life. We're generally not ppl who are satisfied with little; we don't cut our coats according to our sizes. We have lots of low income earners who use one or more mobile phones. Someone told me recently of an area in Lagos where many people living in "face-me-I-face-you" houses had DSTV dishes. You go to the houses of some really low income earners and see amenities that you'd think are out of their reach. Considering that we don't have much access to mortgage facilities like ppl in advanced countries do, you can imagine that many Nigerians go to great lengths to get these desirable things of life.

GL, what is the mood of the people when they get uninterrupted electricity for 24 hours? Are they not happy.

In America or even Benin, when the people get uninterrupted electricity for 24 hours they feel nothing. This is something that they have grown to expect.

This is why I said everything is relative. While Nigerians might look up to other countries, due to the current situation on the ground, they are much easily satisfied.

Very nice writing by the way.

Afeni, you just said it that they're happy even in the face of power failure. That was probably the deciding factor in calling us the happiest. If you're happy because u have a good job, a nice house and car, there's no big deal about that. But if you're happy when you have no house, and no good job; you can dance even though you don't know where your next meal is coming from, then u deserve an award.

The issue is that, with all these problems facing the average Nigerian, we're still happy. Nigerians are very optimistic, at least on an individual level. I believe you should come to Nigeria. You'll see what we're talking about.

Nigerians know that other countries have uninterrupted power supply and complain about it frequently. It is my experience that Nigerians would rather associate themselves with advanced countries than developing ones. Have u heard the tone with which Nigerians refer to other Third World countries? U'd think we're really advanced.

I don't think so and that is merely based on no civil war.

come to think of it,

A day in Nigeria is like a comedy, 12.01am you are killing mosquitoes in your 3 bedroom flat.

then finally you wake up by 5.30am in darkness, light your lantern or candle, rush with your bucket across the street to your neighours house to get water from the well.

Take your bath wear your shirt which you ironed in your friends house the weekend before.

Get to the bus stop at 6.30am and you see the crowd at the bus stop. you are not bordered anyway. You give yourself a target, I should be on one of the first 3 bus, that show up. By instinct you position yourself.

You normally pay =N=80 for this journey, a bus shows up the conductor shouting your destination this time shouting hold your =N=120.00 change, thinking people will ignore you see everybody rushing for the bus. You ignore, seconds later another bus shows up shouting the same. Well you fight your way into the bus and a minute after you are seated the conductor shouts your money . You hand him a =N=200 note, the conductor shouts, hold your change oh, I no get change oh, no say I no talk am. You try to explain yourself. He tells the driver to drop you. You tell him that he has not finished collecting money that he may get some change later. . Someone from the back, slim and lanky shout to the conductor wetin dey worry you self, everybody contributes the conductor is defeated on the argument. Conductor apologizes make una no vex, na my first trip be dis, I no get change. Someone shouts yeye conductor

A few minutes later you are in this traffic (holdup), the next thing someone in the bus brings up a gist about the news the previous night, you didn't have light so you have no idea, you pay attention, he doesn't have to get to the end of the information and everyother person contributes to the gist, start as an arguments support, against but at the end, everyone is saying the same thing and laughing.

Then you are getting close to your office, you shout to the conductor, bus stop Owa, my change, fortunately for the conductor their are two of you he owes change dropping at the same bus stop, with out even stopping the drive asks he done drop, finally you are out of the bus and the conductor hands you a =N=100 , a =N=50 note and a =N=10 note, tells you to give her if you are lucky =N=20 and drives away, you sort yourselves out and you are in front of your office.
this is an ideal morning before breakfast.

Well the rest is history.

What I think is that Nigerians are too forgetful. Hence it is easy for us to put the pains away quickly, then laugh at anything and are too hopeful that things will get better.

I have not been to a lot of country, but Nigeria is a place where it is easy to make someone happy, just by knocking at the door, you could put a real smile on someone face.

Nigeria is a happy place.

I wish i could continue that story, but you can write your own story.

@raldsfield: your post is just hilarious, come to think of it, we all miss these inadequacies in Nigeria and thats what makes "home" unigue.

Bye the way, I think the title of the post is wrong, Nigeria is not the happiest Country, "Nigerians are the happiest people" .

Ignorance is bliss.

@Raldsfield, I was cracking up when I read your post.

We Nigerians have found a creative way of keeping our spirits up, even in the midst of adversities.

You forgot to write about the lack of change in some molue and the ingenious ways of bus conductors in combatting this dilema. Pairing up people, usually a man and a woman passenger to split the change. In some cases, the man would forego the change for the woman, or at unfortunate times, a fight will break out, or then again, this imaginative way is the path to a new relationship forged by two strangers.

Chei, Nigeria, I think of no other place that has brought me so much laughter in my lifetime. Yankee can't just compete with the comic arena of Nigeria.

Hey Rhodalyn you funni, has nigeria offended u before

nahhhhhhhh it's just that truth needs to be said

She is Ghanian

yeap!!

The secret to happiness and well-being is no mystery. All it takes is the ability to do the following:





Forget.

Apologize.

Admit errors.

Avoid mistakes.

Listen to advice.

Keep your temper.

Shoulder the blame.

Make the best of things.

Maintain high standards.

Think first and act accordingly.

Put the need of others before your own.

Forgive. Seem like tall order? Then try slipping as many of these

“secrets to happiness” into your day as possible. You’ll soon be

rewarded with a more positive outlook on life

I have updated the story, Ndipe,

thanks for reminding me about that part, am one of those that enter bus with change.

i love nigeria so much.though am not there at the moment but i love it there and miss home so much

JosBoy4Lif:

The secret to happiness and well-being is no mystery. All it takes is the ability to do the following:





Forget.

Apologize.

Admit errors.

JosBoy4Lif link=topic=6184.msg419593#msg419593 date=1149995135:

The secret to happiness and well-being is no mystery. All it takes is the ability to do the following:





Forget.

Apologize.

Admit errors.

Avoid mistakes.

Listen to advice.

Keep your temper.

Shoulder the blame.

Make the best of things.

Maintain high standards.

Think first and act accordingly.

Put the need of others before your own.

Forgive. Seem like tall order? Then try slipping as many of these

“secrets to happiness” into your day as possible. You’ll soon be

rewarded with a more positive outlook on life

Avoid mistakes.

Listen to advice.

Keep your temper.

Shoulder the blame.

Make the best of things.

Maintain high standards.

Think first and act accordingly.

Put the need of others before your own.

Forgive. Seem like tall order? Then try slipping as many of these

“secrets to happiness” into your day as possible. You’ll soon be

rewarded with a more positive outlook on life

And how many of our pellow countrymen (Apologies to Abacha) are like that?

not many

I actually watched it on CNN couple of moths back when Alibaba one of Nigerians best comedian was shown while crackin jokes and so many ppl were laughin with their mouth wide open.Too many comedy goin on in Nigeria.
Im not suprise if we are rated the happiest country in da world.

lol lol so much

Well that was like 3years ago.


With all the Air crash and all.


I dont think Nigeria is still that.

Happiest country ko,Happiest country ni.

With PHCN holding power for eternity and the Men In Black harrassing boys on the street-

how does these make a people happy.

Pls be real----

f*ck nigeria
yea i said it

Fu*k You too
yes i said it

whoever made dis ratin shud come see boiz fer naija now no be funny thin

Efani na ur mama jar gar jarga! her mouth scata akata

I usually dnt give a crap about this kinda stuff, but I guess some of y'all just hate Nigerians for no reason; so this one goes out to all y'all haters motherfuckers, KISS MY NIGERIAN/ AMERICAN ASS, yea if you dnt like us, you can go to hell with ya hate ass. Bitches!!

oh btw, I'm 100% Nigerian born in the states & thats the only thing American in me, fuckers

I usually dnt give a crap about this kind of stuff, but I guess some of y'all just hate Nigerians for no reason; so this one goes out to all y'all haters motherfuckers, KISS MY NIGERIAN/ AMERICAN ASS, yea if you dnt like us, you can go to hell with ya hate ass. Bitches!!

and u're cursing so much because?

I GUESS IS NIGERIA BECAUSE BABA 7O
PUT IT THIS WAY., WE ARE SUFFERING
AND SMILLING,

Over 4.000 people commit suicide yearly in uk ,but in nigeria it is a taboo to commit suicide,i think it is still got to do with evolutionary theory of life,some people seems to have reach their limit while some are just starting.It is better to laugh the last laugh.

Christ said, for you to enter the kingdom of god,you have to be like a child,not that i am a christian,but i believe in the phenomenal truth and simplicity of christ ideology.In the west,people are kind programme to keep wanting,so there is not an end to what they want as long manufacturers keep producing,psychoanalytic world,while in the so-called third world people are programme to believe that not having the basics is a way of life due to bad precedence set by the visionless ruling class.There have to be a balance in both world,balance of learning to make do with rational minimum and at the same time be in control,after all,we all live to die,all we got is how feel while in the race.

that cant be oooo, something is wrong sumwhere , with the kidnapping in delta, increase in feul price, bad road, just 2 name a few, aw much happier can we get