What Davido’s Dad Meant by Divorcing Happiness from Money -By Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi

It shouldn’t be surprising that some online interlocutors vehemently disagreed with Dr. Adedeji Adeleke’s recent assertion that money doesn’t bring happiness. It didn’t matter to dissenting commenters that the man is in the best position to make such an assertion. We’re talking about the father of international music superstar Davido, who, despite his affluence, still brags about his father’s stupendous wealth. In fact, OBO’s Omo Baba Olowo nickname roughly translates to “the one whose father is wealthy.” That should give a sense of the kind of fortune Adeleke Senior sits on.

The Afrobeat maestro was recently reported to have revealed that his father’s wealth stood at $7.9 billion. Dr Adeleka, therefore, has the bona fides to pontificate on what money can and cannot afford. Addressing his son, Nicholas, and daughter-in-law during their traditional wedding, the industrialist observed that many people who were not financially buoyant live happily, while some with “billions in the bank” are miserable. He went on to assert that, “It’s just God’s blessing. Once you have that in your family, you know you have a happy family. Happiness is not about money.”

After the video of him saying this made its way to X (née Twitter), the majority of responding tweeps showed they couldn’t relate to what the proprietor of Adeleke University said. Cynicism and dissent writ large the responses, as these randomly selected replies show: “It can’t buy happiness but it can buy things that will make you happy! Direct or indirectly money buy am Abi he no buy am?”

“From a man who hasn’t been poor before. Maybe when you experience what the poor man experiences you will know.”  “Give me half of ur net worth first and see if I’m not happy.” “Na only rich people dey talk this nonsense. Which happiness being broke wan offer you? Make ona stop this nonsense talk abeg.”

As it were, the consensus among them seems to suggest that this is the rich’s usual way of discouraging the poor from working hard to become as successful. Yet, those with this warped logic gloss over the fact that the man was talking to his son and his bride. Would Dr Adeleke also not want them to be as wealthy as he is?

Someone sarcastically asked: “Why Daddy dey lie?” No, Dr Adeleke wasn’t lying. He only missed using the right term: Joy. My extrapolation and supposition of man’s intended meaning is based on his contextual mentions of God’s blessings and peace. These can only be associated with joy, not happiness. Happiness is too fleeting to be a spinoff of the Almighty’s peace and blessings. Whatever is divine endures!

Money can inspire happiness, but not joy. It is a given that the mood of someone in financial distress will instantly brighten upon receiving a sum of money that can solve their need. You’ll see sheer happiness suddenly radiate over them. There goes money momentarily procuring happiness.

But where finance loses its mojo is in joy. This is because joy comes from within the person, not without. Unlike happiness, happenings or circumstances have no bearing on joy. The striking difference between joy and happiness is that whereas the latter is an effect, the former is the cause. Yes, joy attracts beautiful things to the person who has it. That is what the Good Book says in Isaiah 12:3 (NIV), “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Metaphorically speaking, joy is the rig that drills an oil well. (Oh, Nnamdi!)

Nevertheless, it is right to say that money cannot buy happiness because that emotional state dissipates over time. Give the person who just received a mouthwatering credit alert a few minutes or hours, and watch them return to melancholy or depression due to other pending and pressing concerns. This cannot be said of the joyful because the virtue has a life of its own – whether the going be good or ugly! Joy is so potent a force that it is not even under the control of the joyful.

Due to its rarity, people often equate happiness with joy, which is a Fruit of the Spirit, yet both feelings are worlds apart. With Dr. Adeleke telling the newlyweds that “the most important thing is peace, happiness…” he must have meant joy, because Jesus Christ, as the Prince of Peace, offers what is far more than happiness. John 15:11 speaks of His joy. He would later say in the same book: “My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Only those who accept the death and resurrection of Christ, and confess Him as their Lord and personal saviour can enjoy this joy that satisfies and settles everything else.

Back to those who disagree with the university proprietor’s thesis, will they also disagree with his other remark about the existence of miserable billionaires? Frustrated rich folks existed as far back as the time of King Solomon. It is what made the wealthiest man ever, who had it all, reach this conclusion: “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.”

However, if Solomon’s eternal wisdom is too far-fetched or abstract, how about the cautionary tale of the young celebrity who preferred to “cry in a private jet than cry in the trenches (or is it Keke Napep)?”

PS: This shouldn’t by any means induce indolence over a sense of industry!

VIS Ugochukwu writes from Lagos, and tweets @sylvesugwuanyi