By Simeon Ugbodovon/Tope Bolugbe
Taking a walk around areas including Oke-Ado, Orita-Challenge, J. Allen junction, Dugbe Bank Road, Dugbe-Eleyele route in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, it is not unusual to catch sight of mentally challenged persons.
Some of whom can be seen lying on road medians, marketplaces, and road intersections. And their number keeps increasing. These are just a few among the numerous ones that stroll the streets in Oyo State.
What calls for concern is the threat they pose when they become violent, and cases of this abound.
What calls for concern is the threat they pose when they become violent, and cases of this abound.
For example, this year, a mentally ill man strangled a secondary school student to death in Ondo. The tragic incident took place in Arogbo, Ese-Odo Local Government Area of the state. The victim, identified as Timibra Meretighan, was taking his Junior Secondary WAEC examination
Same tragic episode was recorded in Delta State in July 2022, where a mentally ill man, Wisdom Solomon, stabbed a young man in his early 20s, Chukwunonso Odo, to death in Asaba.
In 2018, in Enugu, a man suffering from insanity smashed his father’s head with a pestle leading to the victim’s death.
In 2017, at Budo Alaka village in Kisi, in the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, a suspected mentally-ill man set a house on fire killing five family members, who sleeping at the time.
Why this significant increase? One might be forced to ask.
According to reports by the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN),, 60 million Nigerians are suffering from mental illnesses, with only about 10 per cent of them being able to access appropriate care and more than 90 per cent who are unable to access it.
But then, the nation has psychiatrist hospitals spread across the regions, which are Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Centre, Kwara, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Uselu, Benin, Federal Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Enugu, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Kaduna, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Maiduguri, State Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Awka, Anambra, Psychiatric Hospital, Eket, Akwa Ibom, Psychiatric Hospital, Sokoto, Kano State Psychiatric Hospital, Kano, and Psychiatric Hospital, Abia.
There are also Federal and State government-owned multi-specialist hospitals which offer psychiatric services:
National Hospital, Abuja, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Edo, UCH (University College Hospital), Ibadan, Oyo, OAU Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile-Ife, Osun, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Kwara, Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Kaduna, Usman Dan Fodio University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, Aminu Kano University Teaching Hospital, Kano, University of Nsukka Teaching Hospital, Enugu, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Federal Medical Centre, Ido-Ekiti, Ekiti, Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo, Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, Delta, Federal Medical Centre, Bida, Niger, Federal Medical Centre, Adamawa: Yola Specialist Hospital, Bauchi: General Hospital, Bauchi, Benue: General Hospital, Makurdi, Delta: General Hospital, Warri, Edo: Central Hospital, Edo: Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Ondo: Akure General Hospital, Oyo: Ring Road Specialist Hospital, Ibadan, and Rivers: Psychiatric Hospital Rumuigbo, Port Harcourt.
Are these medical facilities not simply enough given the country’s rising cases of mentally challenged?
A psychologist, Dr Oluwafisayo Adebimpe attributes the spike in the number of mentally challenged on the streets to lack of necessary care on the part of the government and families of affected persons.
Dr Adebimpe also pointed out that religious and cultural misconceptions were also responsible factors.
According to a Consultant Community & Rehabilitation Psychiatrist, Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Aro, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Doctor Lucky Onofa, citing the World Health Organization’s findings in 2020, about 20-30% of Nigerians have one form of mental illness or the other; translating to 45-67 million Nigerians suffering from various mental illnesses out of 224 million people (Worldometer, 2023).
Dr Onofa observed that there is a sharp rise in the prevalence of substance abuse in Nigeria especially among the youth, thus the number of homeless mentally ill persons all over the streets in Nigeria has increased.
He said mentally challenged persons suffer a double dose of disadvantages as homelessness and mental illness are both stigmatizing, stressing that it is an eye-sore for mentally ill persons to wander on the streets, adding also that the proportion of homeless mentally –ill persons on the street is an indication of the quality of health services of the country.
Dr Onofa says the causes of the increasing figure of mentally challenged on the streets are multifactorial- multiple factors acting in concert: nature of the mental illness – Major mental illnesses like Schizophrenia, Drug abuse, Dementia, late intervention to the mental illness, burnt out among families- Mental illness require long term treatment and family becomes burnt out in terms of financial and physical responsibilities, family and societal hostility, stigma towards the mentally ill. He maintained that part of the problem included inadequate mental health facilities for admission of mentally –ill persons, and grossly inadequate Psychiatrist 1: 1 million Persons. Just as he points out the same inadequacy in doctors patient ratio: of doctors and Health Professionals: 1 Doctor to 10,000 persons (NMA 2022), and WHO recommends 1:600.
The Consultant Psychiatrist pointed out that being on the streets or homeless complicates the condition of mentally ill persons. These include worsening of mental illness, Comorbidities- Physical illness, infections, infestation, Drug abuse, being killed by hit-and-run drivers, being kidnapped for rituals, and various forms of abuse; the female could be sexually abused and contract HIV and other STDS, while they in turn could be violent, a threat to members of the public.
Dr Onafa explained that homelessness among mentally ill persons could be prevented, noting that all hands must be on deck. He called for the implementation of the New Mental Health Act in Nigeria, increase budgetary allocation to Health (15% of the total budget to the Health Sector as stipulated by Abuja declaration,2001), making mental health treatment free, establishment of rehabilitation centres at the local, state and FG level, social and housing infrastructure, increasing the number of health facilities and mental health professionals, reducing brain drain of health workers, integration of mental health into primary health care, increased family involvement, and involvement of spiritual institutions and NGOs and other critical stakeholders.
On his part, a sociologist, Dr Niyi Oladeji, pointed out that the presence of the mentally challenged on the streets constituted a threat, urging the government to do all it takes to get them off the nation’s streets.
Videos an pics by Salmah, Ope, Emmanuel, Uthman
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