As the world is about to mark world mental health day in about three weeks from now, Nigeria’s mental health legislation is so far from the World Health Organisation (WHO) goals for mental health. Unlike many countries that have made progress towards decriminalising suicide and providing efficient legislation for managing mental health of citizens, Nigeria has sat still, refusing to budge on her archaic laws.
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the need for better mental health care services. This is because social distancing increased feelings of isolation and loneliness. Although scientists are not particularly certain about how these feelings affect mental health, they increase mental health distress. Hence, it is no surprise that countries are tightening their belt regarding mental health care because of the exposure Covid-19 pandemic has created.
Why Are We not doing enough in terms of Nigeria’s Mental Health legislation and care?
Nigeria’s mental health legislation is probably one of the world’s oldest. The country from which we inherited these laws (the United Kingdom) when they colonized us, has moved on to create better legislation. However, we are hugging tight this scrap of a legislation to our chest and refusing to let go. It is clear that as often experienced in our socio-political environment, those is power do not care about the citizens.
The Lunacy Act (Nigeria’s mental health legislation) is an insult to Nigerians just going by the name. A further dive into the legislation teaches you that some books should be judged by their covers. This law stigmatises and oppresses those with mental health conditions. The law creates room for violating human rights simply because a person has one mental health issue or another.
How can the citizens demand better legislation?
This write-up is not to teach the principles of democracy because arguments abound about the kind of democracy Nigeria practices; many have lost faith in our democracy. Nonetheless, for the fact that we have the power to vote in our leaders, we should take advantage of the power we have to make them accountable.
We can exercise this power by letting them know our demands right from the local level; even before giving them power. Furthermore, let us promote the use of instruments such as protests, recalls, to call their attention to aspects in which they are failing. We can vote them out when they do not take heed. Most importantly we can have citizen-sponsored bills to get the legislation we need.
In truth, majority of citizens are unaware of the power they wield. Hence, it is possible that the most productive immediate thing we can do as individuals is to educate those around us. Would you be doing that today?
Read more on mental health in Nigeria
-Ebahi