President of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria, Prof. Taiwo Obindo, has warned that Nigeria’s mental healthcare system is collapsing under gross underfunding, neglect and the government’s failure to implement the newly passed Mental Health Act more than two years after it was signed into law.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE News on Saturday, Obindo said Nigeria’s mental health crisis is deepening as economic hardship, insecurity and unemployment push more people into psychological distress while the system remains unprepared to respond.
“The concern has always been raised. We are now re-echoing what is on ground,” he said.
“Generally, we have one in five Nigerians likely to have one form of mental illness in their lifetime — almost 20 to 25 per cent.”
He said the old prevalence figures were based on a 1986 report and no longer reflect today’s harsh realities.
“With the recent challenges — losing jobs, unemployment, kidnapping, insecurity — it is obvious we will have increased prevalence and even increased incidence of mental health conditions in the country.”
Obindo said the nation’s budgetary allocation to mental health is grossly inadequate and mostly consumed by overheads rather than patient care.
“What we budget for mental health in this country is quite abysmal. Six per cent goes to the health sector, and nothing more than two per cent of that is allocated to mental health,” he said.
“A chunk of that goes to the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospitals — largely for overheads, not for taking care of patients.”
He said funding must “improve and increase drastically” if Nigeria is to handle its growing burden of mental illnesses.
Obindo criticised the government for failing to enforce the Mental Health Act signed into law in December 2022 and gazetted in January 2023.
“Up till this moment, that Act is yet to be implemented,” he said.
“Before now, what we practised was the Lunacy Act, bequeathed to us in 1916 and reviewed in 1958. Calling people ‘lunatic’ is stigmatizing.”
He said implementation of the Act would protect patients’ rights, establish a proper mental health department in the Ministry of Health and create new funding pathways involving philanthropies, NGOs and civil society.
Rising drug prices, he warned, are worsening treatment outcomes:
“What people used to buy for ₦1,000 or ₦1,200 for a month now costs over ₦20,000. That will make them stop taking medication, and we are seeing high cases of relapse.”
Asked to define mental health, he stressed that every individual has a mental health status that must be protected.
“All of us have mental health, or else we wouldn’t function. Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realises his or her potential, is able to cope with normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and contribute to their community.”
Any deviation from these, he said, signals the onset of mental health problems.
“If somebody is not thinking the way he should, not behaving the way he should, not sleeping well, not relating well with others, then he has an issue.”
He said mental illness is costly not only for individuals but for national productivity.
“If we put one dollar into mental health, we are likely to get four dollars in return,”he noted, citing global studies.
Prof. Obindo said stigma remains one of the biggest barriers to care.
“People won’t go for help because of what others will say. And even if they go, they don’t go for the right kind of help. They go to traditional healers, and by the time they present for proper care, it is late — and outcomes are poor.”
He added that mental distress is now widespread in Nigeria because many citizens are overwhelmed by economic hardship and insecurity.
“A lot of Nigerians are under distress presently. Mental health is a pendulum — from optimal mental health to mental health conditions. Many people are in the distressed zone because of losing relations, losing jobs, or inability to feed their families.”
Obindo blamed the government for failing to recognise mental health as a priority sector.
“Mental health is under-prioritised because people have not accorded it the right place,” he said.
“The Ministry of Health has refused to set up a Department of Mental Health Services.”
He added that care is severely under-resourced because the workforce is shrinking due to mass emigration of specialists.
“We have very few mental health practitioners. Quite a number of us are leaving the country in droves,” he said.
“Five recently trained fellows were produced; three of them are likely to leave within the next six weeks.”
Boluwatife Enome
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