It was John F. kenedy that said “change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future”. Applicably the Nigerian legislation on mental health have remained in the past, and sadly colonial relic, which have relegated the practice and safety of mentally challenged to the background, this is not without its accompanying consequences. The lack luster attitude of our policy makers or outright ignorance of the significant need to protect mentally challenged people who are statistically put at about twenty (20) million.
This figure according to the public trustee law includes;
-Person suicidal or dangerous to himself
-Person not dangerous to himself but dangerous to others
-Person incapable of managing himself or others
-A criminal lunatic while insane or under confinement amongst others.’
A similar research conducted in 2019, puts it at one in every four Nigerians, suffers from a mental illness. Despite the staggering figure, little or nothing has been done to improve upon the foundations of Nigeria mental health legislations, the practice has relied solely on the extant precolonial legislations, the English statute of 1845 and 1890, and then 1906- where the lunacy ordinance was passed, presently reliant on the lunacy Act of 1958, which is not only aggressively inadequate but has since become outlived. Away from these, Mental health practice has thrived on the ingenuity of health authorities and efforts of charitable organizations. Although, recent attempts to improve on this has been made, with the introduction of the Bill for the establishment of Mental Health Act, the bill suffered a setback, failing to be passed even for the second time when it was reintroduced in March 20, 2013. These has sadly remained the status quo for the last 13 years.
Covid’ 19, the pandemic that now has infected well over 26 million people, with 875 eight hundred and seventy five thousand death, was accompanied with fear and anxiety about what could happen, public health safety measures like self-isolation, social distancing, ban on public gatherings, closure of religious organizations, loss of work, and death of loved ones can present an overwhelmingly strong emotion and stress in adults and children leading to fear and worry, worsening of chronic health conditions, mental health conditions, which increase the risk of suicide, clinical depression, etc. with Nigeria sitting in the 15th in the frequency of suicide globally according to WHO.
There is every indication that Covid’19 will have a serious psychological effect on the population, going forward it will therefore be expedient that proper plans are made by government to deal with the situation. One of such is that legislation should be geared towards the promoting and implementation of health policies, that provides the culturally sensitive, humane and integrated mental health care, that takes advantage of contemporary approaches like the community based care for people, right of people with mental disorders, ensure equal access to treatment, care and discourage stigma and set standard for psychiatric practice in Nigeria.
VICTOR EGBA
FACULTY OF LAW,
UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR
07053006545
