For the first time ever, Nigeria will join the world to commemorate the International Day for Happiness on 20th March.
The special day, designated by the United Nations, will be marked by the Happiness Centre in Lagos and will have as headline guests Dr Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, wife of the Lagos State Governor, and the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
Other personalities expected are the Oniru of Iruland, Oba Omogbolahan Lawal, and notable political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, who is a Trustee of the Art of Living Foundation.
The Happiness Centre is a contemporary centre fully equipped to cater to the health, wellness and alternative medicine is a part of the international Non-governmental Organisation the Art of Living Foundation.
On the plans to commemorate the International Day for Happiness, the Managing Director of the Centre, Akshay Jain said: ‘We are well aware of the challenges associated with living and doing business in a metropolitan city like Lagos. It comes with health challenges that creep into our lives and reduces our productivity. People often get burnt out as a result of not being happy with many issues about their lives, some within and some beyond their control.
We have set up this centre to offer a wide range of services to enable people achieve the single most important thing the humans should strive for – happiness’.
He added: ‘We are all in pursuit of happiness. We sleep and wake up hoping that each new day is better than the one before it. When this happens, we are happy and when the reverse is the case there is unhappiness’.
Corroborating his point, the General Manager of The Happiness Centre, Francisca Ukabiala said ‘the happiness centre is timely for a city like Lagos. We probably all heard the recent comments by the Governor of Lagos State on the special ticket that people who have lived in Lagos deserve to get to heaven having already lived in what in his opinion is a “hellish city”. We are saying that happiness is all around. It is in the energy that keeps the city moving and most importantly, it is in the haven that we have created to ensure that people have greater bouts of positive energy once they walk in and out of our doors and experience bespoke wellness services’.
Among the missions of the Happiness Centre is to make the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal three (Good Health and Wellbeing) possible in Nigeria.
The centre hosts a wide range of personal and group programmes including Yoga, Meditation, Ayurveda, Nutrition packages and more; all of which are handled by trained and certified experts.
