House of Representatives has reacted to the statistics by the World Health Organization that 3 out of every 10 Nigerians have one form of mental illness or another.

The house during its plenary on Thursday, January 20, averred that over 20,000,000 Nigerians were currently suffering from various degrees of mental illness or disorder without psychiatric health care. The House mandated its Committees on Health Institutions and Healthcare Services to liaise with the Federal Ministry of Health towards improving mental health facilities around the country and further carry out serious sensitization of Nigerians on this issue.

The resolution followed a motion titled “Need to Address the Rising Cases of Mental Health in Nigeria” presented by Hon. Uchechuku Nnam-Obi from Rivers State and considered by the House at Thursday plenary.

Presenting his motion, Nnam-Obi noted that the World Health Organization, WHO considers mental health as a state of wellbeing in which the individual can cope with the stress of life, work productively and contribute to the community. According to him, mental illness manifests in mood disorder, anxiety disorder, trauma-related disorder, personality disorder, old age-related disorder, substance abuse disorder or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning.

He said;
“According to the World Health Organization statistics, over twenty million Nigerians are currently suffering from various degrees of mental illness or disorder without psychiatric health care.
3 out of 10 Nigerians have one form of mental illness or the other, presently there is no mental health legislation in Nigeria. However, the Nigerian mental health policy is the only framework that has access to mental healthcare, dealing with mental and neurological disorders in Nigeria, discouraging stigmatization against persons with mental disorders and has institutionalized standards for Psychiatric practice.
The increase in cases of depression is traceable to multifactorial inter and intrapersonal issues which leads to suicidal death in the country and this requires urgent attention.
Nigeria has only 130 Psychiatrists with over 20 million citizens suffering from mental disorders.
With the few functional Mental Health Facilities and inadequate mental health Practitioners in the country, mental health cases are left for traditional practitioners, hence the upsurge in mental health in Nigeria.
The statistics are troubling and the continued lack of a legal framework on mental health in the country will simply cause the situation to degenerate”he said

Adopting the motion, the House gave 6 weeks to the Committees within which to carry out the assignment and report back to it for further legislative action.

I agree with this report.

Just read through the psychotic comments here on nairaland some people make about each other's tribes.

Then the next moment you see them in a thread in romance section giving advise to ladies or men and you cant but help to wonder how mentally unsyable & psychotic these individuals are in real life.

The manna guy will on one thread curse families and children of his political opponents on the next thread you see him sounding normal praising Chelsea fc and you wonder if such individuals don't realize they are showing classic signs of schizophrenia.

There are some who curse so much bile and hatred one moment then the next thread you see them accusing another tribe of hatred . So truly I agree that millions of Nigerians are suffering from poor mental health .

Just browse comments here and see for yourself .

There are some who wake up everyday, creating different accounts just to target a particular tribe with insults and you wonder .. if these people realize how abnormal they are behaving?

There is one called helinules . That one makes on average of 600 comments every day , he targets threads about a particular tribe then comments and comments , quotes his own comments using different accounts. Every day , that's want a supposed normal person does , then later you see him in romance section sounding normal and you cant but be afraid for people around such persons in real life. Serial killers share similar thought patterns with alot people in Nigeria.

I shudder at times wondering how abnormal these behaviors are.. in a sane society alot of these Individuals should be locked in a psychiatric clinic .