A consultant psychiatrist, Dr. Jibril Abdulmalik, has appealed to the 9th National Assembly to repeal and replace the Lunacy Act 1958, describing it as discriminatory against people with mental health needs.
Abdulmalik, who is of the Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, made the plea while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Ibadan.
The psychiatrist disclosed that the law currently guiding mental health practice in Nigeria was instituted by the British colonial masters in Nigeria.
“The current mental health legislation called the Lunacy Act 1958 was inherited from the colonial overlords even before Nigeria gained its independence.
“The name alone, “lunacy,” is embarrassing and it stems from a lunacy ordinance enacted in 1916 that assumed the status of a law in 1958,” he said.
According to him, the Lunacy Act fails to protect human dignity and falls short of WHO’s description of mental health and persons who suffer mental health problems.
“Part of the problem is not just the name, it is also because of fundamental and practical issues as it fails to protect the rights and dignity of persons with mental health problems.
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“The language of the law is harmful. For example, it treats attempted suicide as a criminal offence.
” Those who attempt suicide are in need of medical help not one year imprisonment as stated by the law, ” he said.
The psychiatrist further called on the current legislative assembly to pass the Mental Health Bill into law to ensure better mental healthcare delivery in the country.
Abdulmalik said that the bill which was first introduced in 2003 had suffered defeat in every legislative cycle.
“The recent attempts to reform the archaic and ancient law has been unsuccessful despite the introduction of a Mental Health Bill before the National Assembly.
“Whereas, the laws guiding mental health in Britain has been revised 14 times since the 1958 law, we have been too lazy to bring ours up to date.
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“We are appealing to this assembly to just look at the Mental Health Bill which was drafted by the most talented Nigerian mental health experts.
“It is a document in tandem with best practices and current evidence to protect and respect human dignity and also advocate for how services concerning mental health should be delivered, ” he said.
He also called for collaborative support of stakeholders including mental health experts, civil society organisations, media and the public to advocate for a speedy passage of the Mental Health Bill.
“At the eighth assembly, the bill passed a second reading and we were supposed to have a public hearing on March 29, but it was cancelled.
“We are calling on stakeholders to drum up support for the deliberation, consideration and eventual passage of this bill into law.
“Mental health problems are like other medical conditions or diseases that can affect anybody irrespective of class, status, occupation and profession.
“The passage of this bill will protect the human rights and dignity of everyone suffering from mental problem; it will improve access to care and ensure we are not operating an obsolete and outdated law,” he said. (NAN)
