By Bassey Ubong
The drive for billionaire status in Nigeria of which the needle has risen to the next level of ‘trillionaire’ (yet to become an entry in dictionaries) can be regarded as a mental health issue. But we need to understand the concept of mental health issue for us to review our country and begin to think of remedial measures, because the craze may be the last straw that will break the back of what people call “the Nigeria project.”
When people want to avoid the beautiful noun, ‘nation’ they use “the Nigeria project” to describe the largest grouping of black people at one geographical space on earth.
In our society when someone sees an abnormal behaviour by another person it attracts a finger to the head of the onlooker. We regard someone as insane when the person wears torn dress; whether the person engages self in a harsh activity or the vocation accepts use of tattered clothes.
Anyone who eats from refuse dumps or regards a bus stop as home stands condemned as a lunatic.
In developed countries some human behaviours regarded as temporary or fun are regarded as mental health issues. This includes excessive indulgence in food, drinks, sex, as well as compulsive drives, such as love of power, wealth, and honour among others.
The government of Victoria, Australia defines mental health as a general term for a group of issues which may impact somebody’s thoughts, perceptions, feelings, and behaviour in a manner regarded as abnormal. The post published in 2020 provides a long and disturbing list of issues, which when reviewed, appears to imply the existence of mental health issues in every human being.
Those who eat normal food at normal locations may regard themselves as people with perfect mental health. But imagine this list published by the government of Victoria, Australia: anxiety disorders, depression, dissociative and dislocative disorders, eating disorders, paranoia, posttraumatic stress disorder, psychosis, schizophrenia, emotional disorders in children, bipolar affective disorder (former name, manic depression), and obsessive compulsive disorder, among others.
Who can claim to be one hundred percent free in a disastrous world of today when public policies and actions, the environment, actions and inactions of friends, family, and neighbours generate incredible stress to the point the most staid people blow their tops when they should show decorum?
Someone played host to a prospective business partner but the host’s neighbour found the guest repugnant and engaged him in physical confrontation which has led the neighbour to a hospital. The host has his heart in his mouth as the neighbour’s extended have risen to demand explanation.
On a minute by minute basis neighbours, colleagues, friends, and family push the blood pressure needle of people up the leader towards possible manic depression. Why should anyone expect a salary earner who has seen his/her take home pay attract half or less goods than hitherto stay away from the embrace of depression?
When Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd drafted the revised prices of petroleum products, did the officers consider what the list will do to the mental health of the majority of citizens who have the compulsory national honor of Ordinary Citizens of Nigeria (OCN).
The World Health Organization lists causes of mental health issues to include inability of an individual to manage stress, environmental hazards, work conditions, bad public policies (including non-provision of medical care for mental cases), politics, nutrition, culture, economics, and in some cases genetics. We cannot determine the width and depth of mental health crisis in Nigeria because we have no capacity with respect to medical records management if Nigerians report these things outside churches and juju priest shrines anyway.
I have no qualification to write a medical post, but those with interest in the issue should visit the internet for helpful information on details of each type of mental health problem and how to handle them. Those who read may be surprised to find themselves as candidates or victims of mental health issues. Some of the issues can be solved by counselors who are available in hospitals, schools, companies, and religious organizations. Nigerian youths should consider this – to surrender one’s identity card, international passport, bank verification number (BVN), phone book, the personal details of family members to ghost voices on the internet should qualify to be listed as a mental health issue. By the time innocent parents are declared “criminals who have run away with company money” by an online lender, the youth should counsel self if no qualified counsellor locates nearby.
Any act or thought of a repetitive and compulsive nature with strong impact on someone’s life can be regarded as a mental health issue. Simple things such as talking without full stop, inability to stop or control the urge to drink, smoke, eat, quarrel, fight, spend money, have sex, play, acquire property and related others are mental health issues. What about writing as I do and say, reading at least 52 novels/books every year? Aristotle wondered whether true genius can be possible without a touch of madness.
Can true love join this group? When someone likes to give all he has and endures privation should such person be regarded as someone with mental health issue? What about fear, compulsive desire to tell lies, excessive attention to cleanliness and wears, dread of failure, inability to manage success and fame, strong desire to hurt and to steal among others? In essence anything done in excess of which makes someone a slave can qualify in the long list of mental health issues which a medical practitioner and a psychiatrist in particular should listen to.
This post focuses on the rabid desire for wealth accumulation in Nigeria which any child in senior primary school can say something about. Basic sociology says something about mass acquisition of wealth – the more an individual has the more he or she wants to have. What does one individual need 90 SUVs for? Several years ago a high ranking public officer had 90 SUVs in his compound. Because a normal person sleeps in one house, one room, and one bed at a time, why should someone with ten or more houses deny a worker the right to buy land to build the first house of his or her life? Excessive food generates problems which a sane person should avoid. Once upon a time I met a friend with ten pieces of meat in his plate of soup. I told him he has listed his name in the group of future cancer patients, has placed himself as a potential suicide, and should leave witches and wizards when cancer knocks on his door.
Years ago, I saw two buildings in “Small London” in Abia State. I heard after a rich man built a three-storey structure, a younger person built same. The elder man followed up with a four-storey building, reason, to put the younger business man where he belongs. I learned the owner of one the buildings made exclusive use of expatriates from masons to plumbers to electricians! Meanwhile, President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania had just one bungalow built with his salary. How many Tanzanians with high rise buildings are known outside the country today? Where does conspicuous consumption lead anyone to beyond the public display for purpose of status as 19th century economist Thorstein Veblen noted?
What value (purchasing power) does ₦1 billion have to an individual for regular life? This question struck me when Dr. Martin Akpan drew my attention to news of a former Minister of the Federal Republic who had trinkets worth in excess of ₦14 billion. Forget cash at hand, at bank, houses, cars, shares, and so on. He believes if an individual with ₦I billion spends ₦50,000 a day such person will require more than 50 years to exhaust the amount (time value of money discounted).
How many Nigerians earn up to ₦50,000 a month when the national wage minimum stands at ₦30,000 a month? ₦50,000 a day means ₦1,500, 000 a month which senior officials in petroleum production and refining companies are linked with while Federal Permanent Secretaries and heads of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) are yet to enjoy.
I went further to analyze the implication of ₦I billion to any individual as a stock of money. Someone who spends ₦1,000, 000 (₦1 million) per month has to live for 83 years to use up N1 billion with assumption of stable prices and no additional money during the period. If the person acquired the ₦1 billion (by whatever means) at the age of 20 (say after first degree and NYSC), the money will be exhausted at the age of 103 years if prices remain as stable as they are in developed countries. If we assume someone who slaughters one goat every two days, and eats imported foods only (to his/her peril) the person can spend ₦1 million a month. I wonder what those said to earn N31 million per month in Nigeria do with such money, except if they pile some of the currency into pots, add Maggie cubes, salt, pepper, and cook the notes for food.
The essence of the argument rests on the reason human beings steal monies they have access to, but no use for. One can guess those people stockpile cash and acquire other assets for generations of their families unmindful of what their offspring will do with money they do not deserve. We can point to children of persons who raped the public treasury and how they end. Billions of Nigeria’s money rest in pieces in offshore banks because of secrecy provisions in those banks. If such acts cannot be listed as mental health issue one should wonder the acts that qualify.
Imagine what ₦1 billion can do as alternative – scholarship scheme for 1,000 youths in a university which charges ₦50,000 per semester for a regular course, or a giant factory with the capacity to employ dozens of people, or a secondary school in a village with free tuition, boarding, laptops, other tools, and books such as the one built and run by Oba Adedokun Omoniyi Abolarin of Ike-Ila, Osun State. One SUV at ₦50 million today can set up a factory for direct employment of at least fifty people and with multiplier possibilities, change the economy of a village. But one character can acquire ten SUVs and feels good about it. What else qualifies for the tag mental health issue?
The incredible desire for billions which given recent exposures has gone up to trillions qualify to be regarded as a mental health issue. It should be included in the category of compulsive obsessive disorder. We need more psychiatrists to handle this form of mental health issue in dear Nigeria. It should be a principal way forward if we are to develop to join the esteemed group of developed countries.
Dr Ubong, a writer and public policy analyst, lives in Uyo
