Mental Health in Nigeria

The Mental Health of Nigerians in Nigeria is failing. In this piece, I will explain how we can fix this disturbing phenomenon.

Nigerian Government has focused on politics instead of Governance for a while now so we need to focus on other systems and structures that can provide value to their Citizens.

The first is worship centers. Worship centers should please create mental health departments led by professionals who act like mental health first-aid responders. Professionals who can resolve issues like Grief, depression, trauma, sexual and emotional abuse, etc. The painful reality is no matter how much you pray, we can’t all live forever so people will still die, experience prolonged Unhappiness, deal with trauma etc. Physical and emotional death is part of life so instead of living in denial and pretending we need to create structures and systems to accommodate realities. Prayer is good but if you don’t pray for food to appear on your plate when you are physically hungry why are you praying when you are emotionally hungry? God also created science so let’s stop rejecting God’s mercy.

The second pathway is Organizations. Organizations should please have a monthly mental health budget for employee awareness programs and activations. There must also be monthly mental health check-ins and accessible therapy gift cards. We must normalize gifting the gift of mental health because emotions drive people, and people drive the bottom line.

If we don’t honor the above urgently, the implication is clear. We will lose more people to addictions, depression, and suicide. Worship centers, Organizations, and Individuals must take responsibility for this to avoid this mess, please!

Namaste.