The House of Representatives, on Thursday, decried the rising spate of suicide across the country.
The resolution was passed sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Chairman, House Committee on Legislative Library Research, Hon Jonathan Gaza, who expressed grave concern over the prevalence of suicide cases in Nigeria especially among youths between ages 15 to 29.
In the bid to holistically address the menace, the House urged the Federal Ministry of Health to come up with a national strategy to address mental problems in Nigeria.
To this end, the lawmakers underscored the urgent need to review extant mental health laws with a view to provide for proper care of affected persons in Nigeria and expedite action on measures aimed at protecting the rights of persons with a mental disorder, ensuring equal access to treatment and care, discourage stigma and discrimination and set standards for psychiatric practice in Nigeria.
He also noted the statistics showing that one-fifth of suicide cases are of persons aged 13-19 years and over 50 per cent of the crisis calls received through hotlines are from youth aged 13-29 and 27.8% of them are students.
“The House is aware that socio-economic factors contribute largely to mental illness such as depression, anxiety disorders etc, which are on the increase and are the leading causes of suicide in Nigeria.
“The House is disturbed that the only form of legislation on mental health is the Lunacy Ordinance enacted in 1916 that assumed the status of law in 1958.
The House expressed concerns that although Nigeria has the highest number of mental cases in Africa, it has one of the lowest numbers of psychiatrists in the world with only about 250 of them providing mental health care in the entire country.
“The House is informed that according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), suicides and attempted suicide cases recorded in the 36 states of the Federation, including the FCT, were 333 and 196 respectively as of 2017, while other reports show that about 80 persons ended their lives between April 8, 2017, and May 12, 2019.
“The House is concerned that the level of awareness of the Nigerian public on mental issues is very low as depression is one of the most ignored and misunderstood forms of mental disorders,” Hon Gaza noted.
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