Friday, July 11, 2008

Mrs Waziri and mad Nigerian leaders By Reuben Abati

Mrs Farida Waziri, the new boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was absolutely right when she told a visiting delegation of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) led by Olisa Agbakoba, NBA President that here in Nigeria too many persons in public office are mentally ill, and that to sanitise the Nigerian public space, aspiring public office holders should be subjected to psychiatric tests. "According to her" The Guardian reports, "Most of the negative character traits exhibited by public officers in the country, especially massive looting of the treasury, are symptoms of mental illness."

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She even tried to identify these negative traits: the theft of public funds, primitive accumulation, and greed. "You know if you are stealing what you need, it is a different thing but if you are grabbing left, right and centre throughout, then your character should be called to question. This, she said, is necessary in order to help many Nigerians who cannot even raise a voice against some of these practices. They cannot feed three square meals while those who occupy public offices through elections, return to their villages, demolish their shanties and replace them with paradise with no regard for their neighbours who cannot feed. This is merciless". Thank you, Mrs Waziri.

Although not a psychiatrist, more than 20 years as a career police officer in charge of fraud investigations must have brought Mrs Farida Waziri in direct contact with the madness of the Nigerian elite in power. But the fact that we are led by "mad men and women" is not hidden, and it is no fresh news either. Nor is Mrs Waziri the first person to call for psychiatric tests as a condition for eligibility for public office. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had made a similar suggestion in the past. This was before he assumed office as Nigeria's civilian President in 1999.

Looking back, however, many Nigerians would readily argue that indeed the eight years of experimentation between 1999 and 2007 could have turned out differently if psychiatric tests had been conducted on public officials during the period. To be sure, the Nigerian Constitution 1999, states clearly that persons of unsound mind are not fit to hold public offices in the country. The framers of the Constitution had reasoned that leadership requires a sound mind. And that cranks should be kept away from the corridors of power. In every country or situation in history where a mad man took charge of power, the consequences have always been dire. Caligula is a classic example. In recent years, historians have added to the list of cranks in power: the late Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko and others in that infamous class. Mental health also became an issue for public discussion not too long ago when the Lagos state government announced that person who violate traffic regulations, as part of their punishment would be sent for psychiatric tests.

Public discussions of mental health should be encouraged. It remains a taboo subject in our land, even 104 years after the first mental asylum was established in the country. Whereas the Constitution recognizes the importance of mental health, public officials have treated the institutions of mental health in the country with utter disregard. Nobody wants to fund psychiatric hospitals. Nobody wants to be seen showing an unusual interest in psychiatric hospitals lest suspicions be raised that the person is a patient in one of such hospitals. Psychiatric hospitals are mostly affected by the widespread crisis in the health sector. There is a shortage of personnel, worse there is an utter shortage of facilities. Nigeria continues to pay dearly for this neglect. Professionals in the industry reckon that more than 35 per cent of Nigerians are suffering from one form of mental illness or the other, from mild symptoms to the extreme. Our cultural attitude to madness is perhaps responsible for the denial of this fact and the refusal to do something about it. In traditional communities, a mad person is considered an outcast, a reject of the gods, an unclean thing to be avoided by the community. This traditional attitude towards mental illness has remained resilient even in spite of modernization and broader exposure.

But the point that needs to be pushed is that it is not only when people appear naked on the streets, eat from dust-bins, or behave openly in an incongruous manner that they are mad. There are many otherwise well-behaved persons, well dressed, comfortable, rich, even educated, attractive and decent on the surface who are raving mad, with bees in their bonnets and whose conduct requires the attention of psychiatrists. Unfortunately, it is this class of persons that find their ways into public offices in Nigeria. Psychiatrists talk about manic depression, insomnia, dementia, bipolar affective disorder, neurotic anxiety, schizophrenia, hallucination, delusion, melancholy, substance abuse and addiction etc as forms of metal illness. The theatre of mental illness is the human mind. And Mrs Waziri is right when she reminds of the fact that there are too many persons with troubled minds in positions of authority.

What haven't we seen in this country? We have seen leaders who loot the treasury and stash away public funds in foreign accounts, sometimes running into trillions of Naira. Leaders who hide public money meant for development in overhead water tanks, underground chests and in all kinds of unimaginable places. One former public official allegedly owned over 50 houses in Abuja alone! Would he sleep on two beds at the same time? But wanton display of ill-gotten wealth is not the only sign of mental ill-health in the corridors of power. How about the maltreatment of ordinary people? Anyone who suddenly finds himself in a position of authority thinks that this is a license to misbehave. They chase other Nigerians off the roads.

They violate laid down rules and regulations and claim superiority to the law. These mad men and women terrorise lesser beings, they turn their offices into weapons of assault against the same people whose interests they seem to be representing. But madness is not restricted to the corridors of power. Nigeria is one large sanatorium. If you doubt this, try take a ride round our cities and watch how motorists behave. Even the average cyclist thinks that the only way to assert himself is to break someone's legs or smash the side mirror of other people's vehicles. Tempers are short around here; Nigerians are so uncivil, so mean, sometimes it is better to stay in your own little world and avoid any form of confrontation.

A common sociological explanation is that it is difficult to have a lower rate of mental illness in the face of excruciating poverty and uncertainties. Nigerians are going mad and behaving badly because nobody knows tomorrow anymore. There are no jobs, too many young persons have no sense of fulfillment, there is no security in the land, and so people resort to desperate means and adopt even more desperate measures in order to remain alive. The average Nigerian is trapped in a stress-inducing environment that makes him or her prone to one form of mental disorder or mild neurosis. All of this can be explained but the clear challenge that Nigerians face is how to keep mad people out of public office, how to make mental health care an acceptable subject, and how to provide help for those in need.

Religion is supposed to make a difference especially in the area of behavioural disorders. The religions are supposed to teach brotherhood, civility, temperance and great virtues. Unfortunately in Nigeria, religion has been a strong vehicle for encouraging mass hysteria and other forms of neurosis. The churches are forever promoting phobias, as they build a nether world inhabited by witches, wizards, demons and images of hell and the congregation is advised to attack the Devil with "Holy Ghost Fire, Fire Burn Them." Across Nigeria is a growing population of devil-castigating, Holy-Ghost seeking soldiers of faith, who are ready to kill once they find the Satan of their imagination and their target is usually adherents of other faiths. There are similar delusion-creating institutions in our land including faith healing homes, herbal homes-all of which are in need of reform if this land and its people must become sane. To save Nigeria, we must begin to deal with the crisis of mental disorder in high and low places.

How feasible is the recurring suggestion that public officials should undergo psychiatric tests? Certainly, there are mental health implications to the governance process in Nigeria even if few public officials, if any at all, would readily agree to undergo psychiatric testing. The way forward is for the legislature at both federal and state levels to pass legislation as a matter of public policy requiring public officials to undergo compulsory psychiatric tests. Since many are likely to resist the requirement, there must be a proviso in the enabling legislation = that whoever does not comply within six months will be relieved of his position. Policemen and other uniformed services officials in particular should be made to undergo mental health checks if possible every three months.

But to do this successfully, governments at all levels would have to invest in mental healthcare education. The country does not have enough psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health care givers. The first mental asylum was established in Calabar in 1904, followed by the Yaba asylum in 1907, and the Aro Neuropsychiatric Hospital in 1954, but to date there are only about eight psychiatric hospitals in the country and 12 medical schools which provide one form of mental health care or the other. This is inadequate. Besides, medical students are reluctant to specialize in psychiatric also because of stigma and the fact that this is not considered a lucrative branch of medicine!

Insisting on psychiatric testing should however not result in human rights violations. Mental health legislation must seek to provide care for affected persons and de-stigmatise mental disorder. The overall objective should be the promotion of the mental health of the Nigerian population by guaranteeing access to care and opportunities for counselling. High quality mental facilities would have to be provided. Public enlightenment would also be necessary, and obviously mad persons, including those on the streets must be catered for and integrated into the community.

Given the increasing rate of mental disorder in this country, and the implications for socio-political and economic well-being, government must raise the level of concern about mental health policy. In Britain, the United States and elsewhere, there are Mental Health Legislations, with the most recent Mental Health Acts in the UK and the US passed as recently as 2007. A mental Health Bill has been before the Nigerian National Assembly since 1999. It is time to take a look at it.