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By Rita Okoye
With mental health challenges rising across Nigeria, mainly caused by the country’s long-lasting economic decline over the past decade, experts are raising urgent concerns about the underlying causes, social factors, and potential solutions for citizens. The increasing cost of living, widespread unemployment, displacement, and financial hardship have heavily impacted the mental health of millions, leaving many Nigerians dealing with anxiety, depression, and emotional distress. In this context, public health advocate Saidi Suara will provide informed insights into the roots of this crisis and culturally appropriate strategies that institutions can implement to address it through structured professional support.
Saidi Suara’s career exemplifies the transformative power of integrating public health, safety, and technology to drive sustainable community impact. As a respected public health expert, he has pioneered innovative approaches to health promotion by engaging underserved populations and turning everyday social spaces into dynamic hubs for learning and wellness. His work has consistently focused on marginalized communities that often lack access to formal health education, championing equity and inclusivity as central tenets of public health practice.
In 2019, Saidi gained national and international recognition when he was named a Goodwill Ambassador by the European Union in Nigeria, in partnership with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This prestigious appointment honored his outstanding role in applying health and safety expertise to support the 2019 general elections in Chinade, a densely populated community in Katagum, Bauchi State, in northeastern Nigeria. His leadership helped ensure a secure and orderly voting environment amidst public health and safety concerns.
As Health and Safety Specialist at the Institute of Church Office Management (ICOM), Saidi has led groundbreaking initiatives to improve congregational gathering protocols and workplace safety standards across religious institutions. Recognizing that churches, mosques, and other places of worship are often the first point of contact for young Nigerians experiencing depression and emotional distress, he has worked to build mental health capacity within these faith-based communities. Through tailored training programs and research-backed tools, his efforts are helping religious leaders better identify, respond to, and refer mental health cases within their congregations and communities, considering them as a last resort.
In light of Nigeria’s growing mental health crisis, Saidi Suara will be offering expert commentary on its underlying causes, key social and institutional responses, and practical pathways forward:
What are the key economic policies or structural issues that have most significantly contributed to the current mental health crisis in Nigeria?
The removal of fuel subsidies, naira devaluation, and persistent inflation have placed unprecedented financial pressure on everyday Nigerians. For many households, the cost of transport, food, and medicine has doubled, but incomes have not. This economic squeeze has led to chronic stress, hopelessness, and even depression. Unlike in developed economies where social welfare cushions exist, Nigeria’s weak social protection system leaves people exposed. The lack of public housing, job support, or food subsidies means even minor economic shocks lead to psychological trauma. The sudden implementation of these policies without adequate palliatives exacerbated an already difficult situation.
How do socioeconomic factors like poverty, unemployment, and urban overcrowding interact with cultural stigma to worsen mental health outcomes?
In Nigeria, poverty and unemployment are not just economic hardships—they also carry deep social shame. A man who cannot provide for his family is often seen as weak or spiritually cursed. In many communities, mental health conditions are interpreted as witchcraft, spiritual attacks, or moral failure, not medical issues. This stigma silences people from seeking help. Moreover, urban overcrowding, particularly in Lagos, Kano, and Port Harcourt, has created environments where noise, violence, and poor sanitation intensify stress. When these conditions are combined with poverty and cultural silence around mental health, the burden becomes unbearable for many.
What populations are most vulnerable to mental health deterioration during this economic downturn, and what social determinants are driving their risk?
The populations most vulnerable to mental health decline in Nigeria amid the current economic downturn include young people, especially those between the ages of 18 and 35, who represent over 60% of Nigeria’s unemployed labor force, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS, 2023). For many, the frustration of “graduating into unemployment” leads to a sense of hopelessness and diminished self-worth, particularly in a culture where financial contribution to the family is seen as a marker of adulthood and respect. Single mothers and widows are also significantly affected, as they often carry the weight of entire households without reliable support or access to credit. Informal sector workers, such as market traders, drivers, and artisans, face daily uncertainty; yet, they often lack access to income protection, insurance, and structured healthcare. Internally displaced persons (IDPs), estimated at over 3.6 million, endure not just trauma from Boko Haram conflict and communal clashes but also food insecurity, poor shelter, and neglect—all of which elevate their risk for PTSD, depression, and suicidal ideation. Across all these groups, social determinants such as poverty, housing instability, food insecurity, lack of access to healthcare, and cultural stigma deepen the mental health crisis.
What are the most urgent gaps in Nigeria’s mental health infrastructure, and how can public-private partnerships or donor organizations help bridge them?
Nigeria’s mental health infrastructure is grossly under-resourced, and the data underscores this systemic failure. According to the World Health Organization’s Mental Health Atlas, Nigeria has just 0.15 psychiatrists and 0.02 psychologists per 100,000 people, compared to the global average of 9 psychiatrists per 100,000. Most psychiatric care is clustered around eight federal neuropsychiatric hospitals, leaving 70% of the country—mainly rural and semi-urban areas—without access to structured mental health care. Primary healthcare centers rarely offer mental health screening or counseling, despite being the first point of contact for most Nigerians.
Public-private partnerships and donor support can bridge these gaps in several ways. First, training community health extension workers (CHEWs) to deliver basic mental health support, as piloted in the WHO mhGAP initiative, can extend care to local government areas where specialists are unavailable. Second, mobile mental health units could be scaled with donor funding to reach vulnerable communities, including IDPs and underserved slums. Digital innovations have demonstrated that mobile platforms can deliver low-cost, anonymous mental health services using WhatsApp, USSD, or SMS in English and local languages. Lastly, NGOs and private-sector actors can support media and faith-based campaigns to normalize seeking help for mental health.
Saidi Suara leverages his expertise to strengthen community well-being through frameworks that track and address the root causes of mental health challenges. By equipping stakeholders with actionable, evidence-based tools and guiding the strategic use of both orthodox and alternative approaches, he ensures interventions are timely, culturally attuned, and effective. This targeted, preventative focus is essential to reversing the mental health crisis—especially among Nigeria’s youth—and building a healthier, more resilient nation.
