There is something admirable about survival. We see it every day in people who keep working despite difficult circumstances, parents who find ways to provide for their families, young people who create opportunities where none seem to exist, and entrepreneurs who keep their businesses alive through uncertainty. Nigerians have become exceptionally good at finding a way forward.

But somewhere along the line, we started turning survival into something to be celebrated for its own sake.

We praise people for enduring conditions that should probably be changed. We call someone strong because they have learned to live with a problem that should never have become normal. We tell ourselves that hardship builds character, as though making life unnecessarily difficult is somehow a necessary part of becoming successful.

Maybe it is time to question that.

When Survival Becomes the Expectation

The problem with romanticising survival is not that resilience is bad. Resilience is valuable. The ability to adapt, recover and keep moving is one of the reasons so many people manage to build meaningful lives despite difficult circumstances.

The problem begins when resilience becomes the solution to everything.

A person spends hours commuting through terrible traffic, and we call them resilient. Someone works several jobs just to cover basic expenses, and we admire their hustle. A business owner spends more time working around broken systems than actually building the business, and we praise their resourcefulness.

There is always another workaround.

Eventually, we stop asking why the workaround is necessary.

That is where survival becomes dangerous. When people become so accustomed to difficult conditions that they no longer expect anything better, dysfunction can start to look normal.

Resilience Should Not Excuse Dysfunction

We should absolutely celebrate people who overcome difficult circumstances. Their stories matter. They show what people can achieve when they refuse to give up.

At the same time, we should be careful about turning those stories into excuses for the conditions themselves.

If someone succeeds despite poor infrastructure, that is impressive. But it does not mean poor infrastructure is acceptable. If a young person finds a way to build a career despite limited opportunities, we should celebrate the achievement without pretending that the lack of opportunities somehow made the achievement better.

There is a difference between admiring someone’s strength and accepting what forced them to become so strong.

That distinction matters because a society can become very good at producing survivors without becoming very good at creating better conditions.

We Should Want More Than Survival

Perhaps the goal should not be to become so resilient that nothing affects us anymore.

Perhaps the goal should be to build lives where resilience is not constantly required.

People should be able to work hard without spending all their energy overcoming problems that should not exist. Young people should be able to dream about building something without first having to figure out how to survive the basic realities around them. Families should be able to plan for the future without treating every unexpected expense as a potential crisis.

Wanting that does not make us entitled.

It means we understand the difference between surviving and living.

Nigeria does not need fewer resilient people. We need fewer situations that demand extraordinary resilience just to get through an ordinary day.

There is nothing wrong with being proud that we survived.

But we should also be honest enough to ask why survival became the achievement in the first place.