Editorial
Demystifying Mental Health
Sometime ago, when the Lagos State Government subjected traffic offend
ers to compulsory psychiatric evaluation, not many Nigerians were amused. But it underscored the fact that there is a very thin line between sanity and insanity. That is why it is commonly said that all human beings cross the line five minutes every day.
Like any other health condition, mental health challenge is part of the human body but in Nigeria, as in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the malaise is mystified. Some believe that those with mental health challenges are victims of the anger of the gods while others blame it on excessive consumption of illicit drugs.
But medical experts are agreed that apart from abusing illicit substances, a normal human could have mental challenges arising from stress, apprehension, fear and even desperation. This is why they recommend that everyone sees a doctor, in this case, a psychiatrist every once in a while for psychological evaluation and to seek professional advice on how to manage their health.
Strangely, that’s not the case in Nigeria. This is why this year’s World Mental Health Day, observed all over the free world Monday, October 10, 2016 may be helpful. It was a day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy.
The focus this year is on dignity in Mental Health – Psychological and Mental First Aid for all. It seeks to encourage people to take personal ownership of their health needs through regular psychological evaluations and first aid.
Statistics show that one in every four adults will experience mental health difficulties at one time or the other. In Nigeria, more than 25 million have mental challenges that require experts attention.
In a country where accurate statistical data is a major challenge, the figure could even be higher yet very little is done to create the necessary awareness on the issue, due largely to the mystification of the subject-matter.
This is why the global observance affords Nigeria, especially the health management sector, another opportunity to launch a vibrant campaign on the dignity of mental health and the urgent need for psychological and mental First Aid for those who might need help.
Perhaps, with such robust advocacy, the citizenry may shed familiar prejudices against mental health and also help debunk superstitions culturally held against mental health.
A major challenge may be fighting stigmatisation. People with mental challenges are often discriminated against or even stigmatised. This delays the pace of recovery after therapy and even drives the sufferer into more dangerous heights.
Most Nigerian cultures demean the sufferer and consider his plight as punishment for unrevealed misdeeds. With such mindset, there is the tendency to abandon one with mental challenges until the sufferer’s situation degerates to disturbing levels.
A proper sensitisation on the need for regular psychological evaluation and mental first aid will, without doubt, change long held opinions and encourage early diagnosis and help. Nigerians need to be sufficiently enlightened that those with mental challenges need love and affection of family and society, because the next person may be you.
The federal and State governments must as a matter of urgency, create public education and enlightenment units in their health institutions. Where such already exist, they should be empowered and properly equipped to take the message even to the most remote rural areas.
Nigeria cannot afford an ever increasing army of mentally sick people on our major cities and towns who frequently deface walls of public institutions or become a danger to themselves and others. An aggressive campaign is key, to demystifying mental health.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
