‘Don’t worry, Be happy’
By hardball Award-winning folk singer, Bobby McFerrin, propounds a doctrine about not worrying over anything and being happy no matter what. In his acapella song titled ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy,’
By hardball
Award-winning folk singer, Bobby McFerrin, propounds a doctrine about not worrying over anything and being happy no matter what. In his acapella song titled ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy,’ he sings, inter alia, that in every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double. So, don’t worry, be happy now.
Nigerians need to take McFerrin’s doctrine to heart if the country’s rating on the world happiness index is of any serious significance. Nigeria ranked at 106th position out of 147 nations in the 2026 World Happiness Report lately unveiled to mark the International Day of Happiness. The new ranking marked a steady decline from 105th position in 2025, and 102nd place in 2024. The World Happiness Report is published annually as part of the celebration of the day.
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The International Day of Happiness, commemorated every March 20th, was instituted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in June 2012 to make people around the world realise the importance of happiness in their lives. The annual happiness report is prepared by the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre in partnership with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The report, based on data from Gallup World Poll, measures how people evaluate their lives on a scale from zero to 10. Country rankings reflect three-year averages and consider factors such as GDP per capita, social support, life expectancy, freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption.
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In the 2026 report, Mauritius ranked at 73rd position globally and was the happiest country in Africa. It was trailed on the continent by Libya, which ranked 81st globally, Algeria at 83rd position globally and Mozambique at 93rd place. Other countries that made the top 10 in Africa were Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, South Africa, Niger, and Tunisia that stood at 105th position in global ranking.
Nigeria narrowly missed the African top 10 by placing 106th globally. Hardball deems curious the metric system that finds war-torn Libya and insurgency-wracked Niger happier places than Nigeria. But that was perhaps the same undercurrent when Nigeria was famously reported to be home to the world’s happiest people in 2003 by the World Values Survey, a global research network that ranked the country first out of over 65 countries analysed for cultural, social and political values. The study, conducted over three years, found Nigerians to be the most satisfied with their lives, despite economic challenges and relatively low income levels compared to other countries surveyed.
So, where has the mirth gone? Nigeria’s positions in the World Happiness Report showed significant fluctuations over recent years, generally reflecting low life satisfaction. Nigeria ranked 116th in 2021, dropped to 118th in 2022, and soared to 95th in 2023 before plunging to 102nd in 2024. McFerrin says challenges regardless, don’t worry, be happy; ‘cause when you worry, your face will frown, and that will bring everybody down. So don’t worry, be happy now.
