Nigerians Don’t Get Sad
During a particularly difficult season, I told a loved one that I was feeling sad. Their response was quick and matter-of-fact: "You can't be sad. Nigerians don't get sad. We are one of the world's happiest people."
I was stunned. I retorted that this was untrue, and then, of course, I went and looked it up.
Ironically, they weren't entirely wrong. In 2003, the World Values Survey named Nigeria home to the happiest people in the world, and in 2011, a Gallup International poll found Nigerians to be among the most optimistic people on the planet (Adewunmi, 2011). However, the World Happiness Report, a broader measure of how people evaluate their lives, tells a different story. In 2026, Nigeria ranked 106th out of 147 countries, its third straight year of decline. What I gather from all of this is that the optimism and enthusiasm Nigerians have long been known for has slowly dimmed over the years.
It also left me wondering whether the people answering those surveys were sharing how they truly felt, or how they believed they should feel. If you ask the average Nigerian how they are doing, you may hear, out of the blue, "I am strong today." Not happy, not tired, not overwhelmed, but strong. I've come to believe that one word says a lot about what we have been taught to show the world, and what we have been taught to keep to ourselves.
My interest in this question goes back to my roots. Growing up in the diaspora, I watched the brutally slow evolution of how our community received the idea of mental health. At the same time, I was navigating my own push and pull of career pressure, cultural and gendered expectations, and all the isms one can experience being young and Black in a system designed for the opposite.
From a young age, I have loved observing people of all ages, shapes, and sizes. I connected patterns, discerned moods and motives, listened to their individual stories, and formed my own hypotheses from what I saw. Even though I studied economics in undergrad and went on to earn an MBA, there was still an itch within me to fully understand the human mind and condition.
So within the last two years, while still working in corporate, I started from scratch. I earned my second master's degree, in clinical psychology, along with my Associate Professional Counselor license. I guess you can call me something of a masochist, because the question I always got was why. I had already climbed the "traditional" ladder of success, so why go back for something perceived as not as lucrative? What was I trying to achieve?
To me, the answer is simple. I didn't return to school because I had failed at the first version of success. I returned because I had become increasingly interested in a question that success could not answer: what happens to the human being underneath all of our achievement?
Full essay free, here on The Nigeria Brief: https://www.frontierbriefmedia.com/p/sunday-edition-nigerians-don-t-get-sad
