You canīt beat a child and expect him or her not to cry. (Igbo Proverb)
Happiness is like a sunbeam, which the least shadow intercepts, while adversity is often as the rain of spring. (Chinese Proverb)
Difficulties are meant to arouse, not to discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict. (William Ellery Channing)
To find in ourselves what makes life worth living is risky business, for it means that once we know we must seek it. It also means that without it, life will be valueless. (Marsha Sinetar)
When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them. (Chinese Proverb)
He who steals fire cannot hide the smoke. (Igbo Proverb)

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hat has happiness got to do with suffering Nigerians? Flying into Nigeria through Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, one notices the inscription "Welcome to Nigeria, the land of the happiest people on earth". I saw that inscription for the first time few weeks ago when I arrived Nigeria through that airport. For the past seven to eight years, I haven't entered into Nigeria through Lagos, but, have left Nigeria once within that period through the airport. I have been coming into Nigeria through Port Harcourt International Airport before it was closed for the never ending refurbishments or through Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport, Abuja.

When I read that inscription hanging conspicuously behind the immigration desks on arrival, I knew then why Nigerian ruling class don't give a damn about the ruled. I knew right then why the rulers are not afraid of what consequences that might befall them from their lack of interest as regards to the wishes, needs and aspirations of the ruled. I wondered then how on earth somebody can put up that inscription in a country of hungry people; I wondered why such an inscription should be there in a country where nothing works. It dawned on me that the ruling class must have studied the ruled and found them to be too docile to effect a change through peaceful or violent means. It became clear to me that the ruling class has been playing on the intelligence of the ruled and that the latter can do nothing about it. The ruling class know that no matter how down, under and out the ruled is, they can never ask for their rights rather the ruled prefers to be "suffering and smiling". The poor masses are hypnotised to the extent that they don't know their lefts from their rights and prefer their subservient conditions rather than "rock the boat" to effect the necessary positive changes.

How on earth can anyone be proud to hang the inscription depicting Nigerians as the happiest people on earth when in actual fact the people are all angry that the rulers are not doing anything tangible for them? How can Nigerians be the happiest people on earth when poverty, ignorance and diseases are prevalent in the society? Maybe, the person that wrote that inscription must have forgotten that a "hungry man is an angry man". No one can be happy when he or she is hungry, sick, poor and when hopelessness stares the person on the face.

The ruling class must have covertly or overtly brainwashed the poor Nigerians that they have accepted penury or their pitiable conditions with fortitude and will never wake up to demand for what is theirs. The ruling class is using religion and the religious leaders to achieve their aim of keeping the poor Nigerians down and out. Religion as the "opium of the masses" deceives the people to accept whatever condition they find themselves in without questions, rather, that they should be hoping for "heaven" where they will be rewarded with "good life and riches". Let me tell them that the poor Nigerians want their heaven right here on earth and they want their tomorrow today. The poor Nigerians are living in hell right here on earth and are no longer dreaming of heaven paved with gold somewhere else. Let our heaven start right now here on earth. Nigeria as a country has all the potentials to make life for its citizens to be "heaven here on earth", so the ruling class and their religious cohorts should stop deceiving the people.

The rulers steal the peopleīs wealth and still the people turn around to worship and praise the former, seeing those thieves as successful people. The question is: When on earth will the poor masses rise to the occasion to demand for their rights? For me, Nigerians are not the happiest people on earth, unless, if there are Nigerians living in mars away from planet earth. Rather, majority of Nigerians are the most inert or indolent people on earth, but, they will not remain so forever. Because, no people with their right senses and sound minds will accept to be suffering in the midst of plenty for such a long time and still see themselves as the happiest people on earth. Nigerians canīt be the happiest people when the only available job for the youths is okada riding. Nigerians cannot claim to be the happiest people when life there is nasty, brutish and short. Nigeria cannot produce the happiest people on earth when nobody there is sure of tomorrow except the few rich people. How can Nigerians be the happiest people on earth when there is hopelessness, when there are frustrations and sufferings, when majority of the people are left behind, when children are dying of hunger and diseases, when there is no security of lives and properties, when the infrastructures are in decadent state?

It is unfortunate that what a visitor to Nigeria through Muritala Muhammed International Airport notices first is a false impression of the country. No wonder that Nigeria is being regarded as a country built on lies and Nigerians as big time liars. Because a visitor to Nigeria gets an impression on point of entry, but, experiences a different one when he or she gets inside the country proper. The worst we have been doing to ourselves is telling ourselves lies. No harm is more devastating than that.

Let me tell the ruling class that the pressure is building up at an alarming rate. It will be more ferocious than the Tsunami when the people decide to come out of their "shells". The rulers should know now that Nigerians are one of the saddest people on earth and their feelings right now can best be described as "corked pressures" that will burst free soon. The elasticity limit will soon be surpassed and everybody in that country is on edge and soon things will get to a "breaking point". Soon too, "things will fall apart and the centre will no longer hold or contain the fallout". The ruling class is underestimating the Nigerian public at their own peril. Let them start now to serve the people honestly and genuinely or else, they will have themselves to blame, they should be warned. Nigerians will soon wake up to a new dawn where equality, fraternity, justice and service above self will reign. Arise all ye the downtrodden, tell the ruling cabals that you are not the happiest rather the saddest people on earth and that you have decided to change that. You will always have my support; you can always count on me through thick and thin.