Metro
64m Nigerians are mentally sick, Prof Nebo says
Former Minister for Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo said on Monday, that at least 64 million Nigerians suffer one form of mental illness or another deserving psychiatric and mental health care attention.
According to him, governments at various levels need to do more to ensure that more Nigerians have easy access to psychiatric and mental health care facilities.
Nebo who spoke as a guest lecturer at the 2nd Public Lecture organized by the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu in collaboration with the West African College of Nursing said “it is speculated that 64 million Nigerians suffer from one form of mental illness or the other deserving attention.”
Speaking on the theme, ‘Psychiatric and Mental Health in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects,’ the former minister said whereas government had done much in the area of Primary Health Care, much was yet to be done in the area of psychiatric and mental health.
Read also: Nigeria habours 21 million ‘kolos’
“I will confess that while government has built modern diagnostic centres, dialysis and ophthalmological centres, and constructed more than 710 Primary Health Care Centres throughout our political wards in Enugu State, we are only beginning to give priority towards optimizing and modernizing our Psychiatric Mental Health Institutions in the State to meet required demands.
He identified causes of mental illness to include genetic composition, early development, neurological and psychological experiences and environmental stresses.
While calling for increased awareness on the treatment and management of mental disorder, Nebo said: “The belief that many Nigerians seem to hold that mental disorder is a result of supernatural forces and, therefore, only responds to cure through traditional practices and supernatural incantations, must give way and face the realities of modern conditions, which in fact, produce the stresses that lead to different level of mental conditions.”
RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...