BBC says Nigerians are 'more Optimistic' Than Westerners - How Can This Be ?


BBC World Service survey in 25 countries has found strikingly different attitudes to the economic outlook between rich and developing countries.

In the rich world, consumers were pessimistic, while in emerging economies people were more upbeat.

It is a pattern that reflects the very uneven recovery from the recent global recession.

More than 25,000 people were surveyed by the polling firm Globescan.

Japan, France and Britain emerged as particularly gloomy. The percentage expecting good times in all three countries was in single figures. More than half expected bad times.

Recession danger

The picture across the rich world was one of pessimists outnumbering the optimists, though by smaller margins.

The one exception to this pattern was Germany, where 36% expected good or mostly good times, well ahead of those who were downbeat. Even there, the optimists were outnumbered by those expecting a mix of good and bad times ahead.

In the developing world, optimists outnumbered pessimists in nearly every country surveyed. In Nigeria more than seventy per cent expected good times. The results were strongly upbeat in Kenya and Egypt as well.

There was one exception, Pakistan, where pessimists were slightly more numerous. In Russia, Chile and Ecuador, the optimists were only just ahead.

The difference in attitudes does broadly reflect recent economic performance: strong growth in many emerging economies, sluggishness in the rich world.

It is also consistent with most forecasts, which suggest an increasing danger of at least some developed economies sliding back into recession.

The research was done between July and September this year.

Since then the situation in the world's biggest economic trouble spot - the eurozone - has moved on and in some respects the uncertainty there has deepened.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15545032

This is the quote from BBC that got to me :  "In Nigeria more than seventy per cent expected good times."     How can people be so resilient in the midst of such mayhem 

You can judge the success of a country by how many pessimists its has. Pessimists are generally successful people

@Poster, what of that do you find unbelievable? Most of the people do not really believe they deserve better so to many of them, what they live today is what they deserve. You can notice this in the way many of our african brothers interact.

Why won't nigerians be optomistic? After all the suffering they know that the only way is up!

paniki:

You can judge the success of a country by how many pessimists its has. Pessimists are generally successful people

Who says pessimistics are more successful? Pessimistics see dangers signs written every where, while the optimistics do not. What makes them successful when they don't take any risk- Look round the world today, the more successful people re risk takers and they re optimistic in nature.

I agree with the quote. After all, Nigerians have refused to stand up against bad government. They would rather go to church and give their pastors the little money they managed to make, all in the name of God's time is the best. Keep dreaming!! Heaven helps those who help themselves.

paniki:

You can judge the success of a country by how many pessimists its has. Pessimists are generally successful people

I won't go that far. I would say the more REALISTS you have, the more successful, as when you have a group of realists, you find that they are better able to come up with solutions to tackle problems as they exist, unlike when you have overly optimistic people who tend to more to tackle issues by solving the resulting problems and not underlying issues. You need both but when you have a higher proportion of the one over the other, you tend to observe a disconnect.

Nigerians are optimistic because they don't know what they are doing.
We have abandoned the art of critical thinking and embraced sensational emotionalism that religion provides.

The average person cannot be blamed for that state of mind in a country that has failed repeatedly for 51 damn years. In fact we have failed so many times that the average person is too bruised to even correctly identify the source of their problems, talkless of how to resolve them.
All they have left is the imaginary World of religion where there is only hope and "joy." It will take years to pull back from 51 years of constant trauma and restore our thought processes to normal.

Too religious

Rgp92:

Too religious

Nonsense.

Religion , and I mean True religion ( not the radical explosive type - you know what I mean ) is healthy.

Religion has played a core role in the lives of many people I know, me included, who have made a success out of life and career.

To blanket religion as the original cause is silly.

Let us reword it this way, dependence on religion for everything without hardwork, contentment and critical thinking is the main cause of our problems.

This leads to ignorance and confusion.

Optimism has to be grounded on fact not fallacy, we must plan and work to achieve our optimistic objectives.

If you and brother Beaf mention religion again, I may have to rebuke you both 

I made that comment in relation to the article which compares optimistic and pessimistic countries. It's easy to be happy and optimistic when you are poor and have nothing to worry about. All you do is live and hope for the best. But when you live a "successful" life, you have more responsibilities more worries and anxieties which then means that your success is more likely to turn you into an pessimist. That's because as the world and its functions change it threatens to disrupt your success status or your accustomed way of life therefore you expect things to always go wrong. Example is the lifting of the fuel subsidy, it threatens to disrupt the "successful" way of life of a small portion of the Nigerian population and it is these comparatively successful Nigerians who are opening and contributing to pessimistic threads on this forum. You are more likely to find a higher proportion of Nigerian pessimists on Victoria Island than the mainland which shows that where there is success, there is also pessimism and where there is poverty, there is also happiness and optimism.

frosbel:


Nonsense.

Religion , and I mean True religion ( not the radical explosive type - you know what I mean ) is healthy.

Religion has played a core role in the lives of many people I know, me included, who have made a success out of life and career.

To blanket religion as the original cause is silly.

Let us reword it this way, dependence on religion for everything without hardwork, contentment and critical thinking is the main cause of our problems.

This leads to ignorance and confusion.

Optimism has to be grounded on fact not fallacy, we must plan and work to achieve our optimistic objectives.

If you and brother Beaf mention religion again, I may have to rebuke you both

This is true! Faith without work is useless.

Per capita, Nigerians are probably near the top of the list of the biggest consumers of motivational and "positive thinking" literature on earth.

So go figure

False hope, reinforced by religious and social indoctrination = faux optimism.

Ayamsorry

The optimism of a faith based person is intertwined with the Will of God Almighty concerning the ordainment of fate. They pray for daily bread and then thank God for the half bread. . Fatalism at its worst.

.

yeswecan:

The optimism of a faith based person is intertwined with the Will of God Almighty concerning the ordainment of fate. They pray for daily bread and then thank God for the half bread. . Fatalism at its worst.

are u an atheist?

he who is down fears no fall. we have everything to look up to

Nigeria People Live on HOPE
Hope of a better day
hope of a better future
hope of Good times

careytommy:

he who is down fears no fall. we have everything to look up to

GGBBAAMM !!!!!!!!!!!

Nigerians have no option

This is the e go better syndrome that's so common in Nigeria. This syndrome has stymied critical thinking and the zeal to challenge the abysmal situation in Nigeria. We've accepted mediocrity and hope for a brighter tomorrow.

The Nigerian elites - politicians, business & religious leaders continue to enjoy the fat of the land and deceive the masses that one day Nigeria will be great; that once they fix power supply our economy will improve; that if we pray fervently prayers will be answered and so on. Trust us and just enjoy your owanbe parties. Tomorrow will be fine.

Is there any other nation on earth that has been fed and accepted so much false hope? No wonder we are the most optimist

Optimistic about what exactly? Anyway, good times is a very relative term.

Nigerians are More Optimistic Than Westerners - BBC

At least, this is one survey that wasn't flawed. Im VERY OPTIMISTIC that we would get there one way or another.

i think this is borne out of two major factors:

Lack of information and our distinct faith in "religion", please note that I said religion and not Christianity or Islam, we have the "e go better" mentality, the day we take our destinies in our own hands and stop sitting on our butts waiting for divine intervention is the day reality will set in for Nigerians!

It's not surprising at all, there's something about the Nigerian spirit, doesn't quit easily, hoping against hope, it's the 'one day e go better' spirit, that fighting spirit. Even when we are in other parts of the world it's still there.

It's only Nigerians that can live in Nigeria the way we have for decades and still be optimistic, other African countries would have recorded wars while the whites would have committed suicide in their thousands!

The only problem I have with us is that we work hard but not necessarily smart, we are not physically lazy but a good percentage of Nigerians are mentally lazy!

careytommy:

he who is down fears no fall. we have everything to look up to

True talk!

Beaf:

Nigerians are optimistic because they don't know what they are doing.
We have abandoned the art of critical thinking and embraced sensational emotionalism that religion provides.

The average person cannot be blamed for that state of mind in a country that has failed repeatedly for 51 damn years. In fact we have failed so many times that the average person is too bruised to even correctly identify the source of their problems, talkless of how to resolve them.
All they have left is the imaginary World of religion where there is only hope and "joy." It will take years to pull back from 51 years of constant trauma and restore our thought processes to normal.

This is a good summary.

[/quote][quote author=Beaf link=topic=798954.msg9508047#msg9508047 date=1320781036]
Nigerians are optimistic because they don't know what they are doing.
We have abandoned the art of critical thinking and embraced sensational emotionalism that religion provides.

The average person cannot be blamed for that state of mind in a country that has failed repeatedly for 51 damn years. In fact we have failed so many times that the average person is too bruised to even correctly identify the source of their problems, talkless of how to resolve them.
All they have left is the imaginary World of religion where there is only hope and "joy." It will take years to pull back from 51 years of constant trauma and restore our thought processes to normal.

This is the kind of issue based sound analysis we miss when we tend a little towards being pro-GEJ.
All my NL days, i ve never seen a better comment from Beaf than this.

this thread shows that we(Nigerians) likely knew our problem but,,,

who will bail the cat

Nigerians just love smiling while suffering.

I love my optimistic gene. E get as e be.

Was this thread conducted during the election period or a few months after?

The best thing to do is to re-conduct the research again. We'll prolly hear another story.