A note on mental health

July is a special month on the health calendar. It’s the only month of the year dedicated to mental health issues. No nation makes progress by paying lip service to the mental health of its citizenry. In our wonderful country, those who need mental health evaluation are often chauffeur-driven with siren, they live in gated […]

July is a special month on the health calendar. It’s the only month of the year dedicated to mental health issues. No nation makes progress by paying lip service to the mental health of its citizenry. In our wonderful country, those who need mental health evaluation are often chauffeur-driven with siren, they live in gated houses at public expense, they are granted chieftaincy titles by monarchs of debauchery and awarded honorary doctorate degrees by morally-deficient institutions.
The scale of the fraud in the unfolding Jubrin-Dogara saga is enough evidence to convince anybody that those who have the nerves to abuse people’s trust with such impunity are not normal. In the midst of it all, social media savvy Speaker Dogara announced with pictorial evidence that he was in church at a thanksgiving service. This shameful saga would soon turn into a religious or geographical brickbat.
A Naija bishop once told a story of how he was sent off with wads of fresh-mint Naira after visiting a church-member turned governor back in the day when the Naira had economic value. The bishop, before thanking the governor asked him if the ‘gift’ came from the governor’s salary? It didn’t, it came from security votes and the bishop left perhaps with a clear conscience, maybe because the bishop in question is richer than Naija, that is a topic for another day before I am reminded to “touch not mine anointed, do my prophets no harm” by those at the receiving end of religious madness.
Doyin Okupe, as President Jones’ attack dog, needed cash to renovate his ‘rented’ apartment; he did not approach Zenith Bank; he went to his boss who referred him to Santa Dasuki who ‘dashed’ him N10 million from taxpayers money (sorry take that back and replace it with oyel money) to renovate another person’s house!
Before you remind us that those were the years of the locusts, let me remind you that the French were right, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Last December, under Alhaji Integrity, Christian evil servants shared Christmas rice and anointing oil, sorry I meant vegetable oil! During the last Ramadan, Muslim evil servants received the same. Let Ekweremadu the letter writer write to inform Ban Ki-Moon that Saint Buhari has now banned the production and distribution of conference bags and sundry souvenirs in case they’re planning a conference here. I see APC contractors rushing to Minna to see if Abdulsalami can intervene. In the meantime, heaven go hear wien as God/Allah is petitioned.
The way politricks rolls in Naija, public office holders elected or appointed should be having MRI scans and deep analysis prior to seeking public office. Every day in Naija, Dr. AG Ahmed’s sick patients are chauffeured around in emergency sirens. They get meaningless chieftaincy titles and valueless degrees and walk around the country in contravention of both Psalm 24:1 and the Land Use Act. Truth is, the earth is bequeathed to the people they rob but so often, victims are blinded by bigotry to even see.
It’s a shame that our country spends a substantial chunk of its now hard-earned resources feting those it should have institutionalized and ignoring those who need medications. For those who have lived anywhere else, the mental health month reminds us how far we are behind the world. In a 2003 study on mental health institutions in Naija by WHO, the agency blatantly concludes that ‘there is considerable neglect of mental health issues’ here. It declared that the last mental health policy was formulated in 1991.
It is shameful watching the euphoria of treating presidential earache when ordinary citizens battle with simple malaria. Either in budgeting or padding, mental health issues are off the radar. Everyday, news items tell us why we need to take mental health issues seriously.
Two weeks ago, a mentally challenged man eloped from a ‘church’ after it became public that he had chained his starving eight-year old son to a church pew for allegedly stealing from an obviously abusive step-mom. As usual, both the media and analysts got the focus of the entire story wrong. The man is sick – simple, but rather than get help for his ailment, he is celebrated as a ‘prophet’. In a country facing unending psychosocial crisis, citizens have nowhere to turn. They depend on spiritual help to cure mental disorders that cheap drugs take care of in other lands. Punishing a child for stealing is one thing, chaining that kid for two weeks in a church is not wickedness; it is the manifestation of pure mental illness. Wife beaters and domestic staff abusers are in the same category. The rate of suicide is heightened by mental imbalance. Majority of people in jail are pure mental health issues.
This nation should pay attention to mental health. For now, WHO says we lag behind Kenya, Egypt and South Africa. It should be shameful if we had shame. We need more psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health workers. If budgets are padded to cure mental health, I’ll have no problems with it.