Sign Mental Health Bill into law, Psychiatrist urges FG

A Professor of Psychiatry, Taiwo Sheikh, has appealed to the Federal Government to sign the Mental Health Bill into law to promote the mental health well-being of Nigerians.

Sheikh, also the immediate past President of Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN), made the appeal in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos on Friday.

According to him, signing the mental health bill into law will help in the repositioning of the health sector to meet emerging challenges.

He added that it would also, generally, enhance the mental health and well-being of all Nigerians, as well as help achieve a stable mental health status for the country if the bill became law.

The psychiatrist noted that the bill, which had passed its first and second reading, as well as the public hearing stage, was currently awaiting the assent of President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to him, the 1916 Lunacy Law copied from the English Laws is still the basis of mental health and psychiatric practice in Nigeria.

He described the 1916 Lunacy Law as archaic, regressive and not all-compassing by modern terms.

“The National Assembly (NASS) has looked into the bill and passed it to the President for his assent.

“Signing the bill is necessary and very urgent because the mental health Nigeria is using today is the Lunacy Act of 1916 and the content is that of 1800.

“It is a Lunacy Act of 1916, but what is written inside it was what have been written in 1800; that is more than 200 years ago.

“I want the President to be aware of this, and save us by signing the bill so that the country can have a compassionate law, a caring law, a law that understands the modern language of mental health in Nigeria,” Sheikh said.

The psychiatric professor emphasised that signing the Mental Health Bill would not make it a permanent law, adding that it would still be subject to revision and amendment.

He said that the Lunacy Act of 1916 categorised persons with mental illness as lunatics who should be disassociated from the society and locked up somewhere.

“That’s more reason the bill needs to be signed. Whatever the President signs today is not permanent; it is still open for revision.

“So, we cannot say we wait until we have something that is perfect; it may not be perfect, but at least it will shift us away from that Lunacy Act of 1916.

“That Act doesn’t have what is called mental health written in it, it doesn’t have treatment, mental health promotion or prevention strategies in it.

“All it has is custodian law – that anybody who has mental illness is a lunatic and should be taken away from the society and locked up.

“That’s all about the law, and we have gone beyond that,” Sheikh said.