Project 9ja Mag The Revolution. 1st Edition | Page 46

Project9ja
bill for the establishment of a Mental Health Act how an individual turns out. In Nigeria, a child’s
was introduced 2003 and re-introduced to the grades are more important to his parents than
Assembly in 2013, this is yet to be passed into how he feels as an individual.
law. There is no desk in the ministries for mental •
health and only 3.3% of the Federal Government’s to the prevalence of this sickness.
budget goes into this sector. In addition to this, Although the government might fail us, we as
the numbers of trained and specialized mental a people should see to the defeat of this grow-
health care professionals are very low. According ing cancer that eats up people silently by fully
to WHO-AIMS report of 2006, “there are no dis- equipping ourselves with the knowledge about
aster emergency preparedness plans for mental its patterns and its manifestation. In essence get
health in existence in the country” and although enlightened and look for signs in your colleagues
a National Human Rights Review Commission es- and also get acquainted with platforms available
tablished by an Act in 1995 exists in the country, to combat these illnesses like Mentally Aware Ni-
it has no specific monitoring activities for mental geria (MANI) and a host of others.
Lack of enlightenment also plays a key role
health but it conducts visits to prisons. No mental
hospitals, community based inpatient psychiatric
x
units or community residential facilities have re-
view or inspection of human rights protection of
patients at any time. So these patients are largely
left at the mercy of the health personnels.

According to an article written by Dr. Uk-
wuori Gisela Kalu on “Nigeria Health Watch”, she
stated that “there is a considerable neglect of men-
tal health in Nigeria and those who visibly suffer
from mental illness are largely stigmatized”. And
in a press release by Premium Times “Increased
Rate of Mental Disorder among Nigerians”, it says
Tsakpa Charles Tsakpa
University Of Jos
Lafia, Nasarawa State
Tsakpaspoetry
Tsakpa Charles
one out of seven persons will have serious men-
tal illnesses, while one in four persons will have
some form of mental disorder.
Although a prevalent issue and one quite unat-
tended to, the causes of mental health illnesses
in Nigeria range across a lot of reasons and a few
amongst them are;
•
The poor socioeconomic state of the coun-
try.
•
The child raising systems adopted in cer-
tain households as this has a very crucial role in
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