The Mental Health Risks of Living In Nigeria Now

I have two stories to tell in order to drive home the point of this post: the serious mental health risks of living in Nigeria now. You can live in Nigeria off- or online. By an online residence, I mean participating often in Nigeria-themed social media spaces (even if you live abroad physically).

Now, the stories...

First, this is about a funny but horrible real-life event that someone told me recently. It supposedly occurred at an important market in one of the country's state capitals (name withheld for security reasons). According to the story, a couple of Fulani-looking fellows entered a huge market and a stampede occurred around that part they were seen. I mean that people ran helter skelter on impulse. Funny enough, it turned out the supposed Fulanis only came there to buy stuff.

I wasn't there, but I guess the Fulani guys who caused the hair-raise must have been dangling their sheathed machetes (swords?) as usual. I mean that those who ran for their dear lives must have had substantial reasons to think they were under a grave threat. And, also, there was one of these frequent Fulani 'massacres' in that state only recently.

The second event featured yours sincerely and it took place today. In fact, it is the event that triggered the idea to make this post. Look at it... 

Because I work from home, I often need to go out and take a walk in the sun in the afternoons. Never before did I realize what a potent medicine sunshine is until I started working from home. I once said this on Facebook and a Pastor cited a scripture to support it - "the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays" (Mal. 4:2).

The story continues: I live in a new estate with many undeveloped plots of land (including really wild-looking areas) around. You can call us 'village people' and you'd be right. I like the rural environment though.

So, today, as I was taking my sunbathing walk around the estate, I came near an abandoned building project that held a pool of water inside it. It actually looked like a pond covered in grass.

Then, I saw two birds standing on the water/grass. In all my life, I've never seen anything as beautiful as those birds. I wondered where I had been all these years without ever setting my eyes on that specie of birds. I tell you, the beauty of those birds got me so amazed and magnetized to that spot that I was there for almost an hour before I forced myself to leave.

I couldn't take the pictures from a safe distance. And, when I tried to go closer, the birds flew away. They returned as soon as I left to my former position - to tell you how much water environment means to them!

When I finally and reluctantly left that place, I kept thinking about those birds. Then, for the first time, I truly realized why people take up bird-watching as a full-time hobby across the world (except, maybe, in Africa).

I guess some secret onlookers may have thought I was mad when I stood there watching those birds. You know, this is Nigeria (nay, Africa). Maybe, it's even one of the reasons I had to force myself to get away.

One truth I cannot stop myself from telling you is that I felt an unprecedented level of psychological upliftment by just looking at those birds as they stood care-free in the cool of that pool. But then, I also realized how stories after stories of blood and death in Nigeria has robbed me psychologically. These stories have stolen many opportunities of finding joy in the 'little things' of life from me - 'little things' like watching a sunset. Believe me, here, I'm only a sample of millions of Nigerians from Maiduguri to Port Harcourt and from Lagos to Calabar.

Above all, I realized afresh how toxic Nigeria's social/political environment has gotten. Then, the serious mental health implication of such a toxic environment occurred to me like never before. 

I know that most Nigerians may not take the issues of mental health seriously enough. We probably think that it's only someone who is mad outright that has mental health issues. No.

Before now, I already noticed what I may call an epidemic of psychological health challenges in Nigeria. Ironically, the victims themselves are not likely to acknowledge it. But you will see it manifesting in how easily Nigerians get upset at one another and situations; how bitter we could easily get at people online or off, and the bile-filled curse words flying around the country's social media space. 

Then, there's the endless fear of the unknown. Many are just too scared for words. I decided to share this because I noticed that these psychological gaffes are becoming our greatest problem - worse than the terrorism itself. 

The terrorists have succeeded in getting us subconsciously subdued. We are now turning against ourselves without knowing it. Think about those traders and buyers at the market stampede I told you about. Many of them may have gotten injured, or lost some valuables. People could even have died.

But, there is something worse that those scared citizens did by their panic. This is it: They gave more of their power to those Fulani terrorists (in case they were). How is that? Just fancy the Fulani guys thinking, "Oh, so this people are this scared of us? So, we've gotten so much power over them? So, they can't even defend themselves if we strike? So,...?" 

Imagine that. The Nigerian people are now the ones pushing the buttons for the terrorists. Or, don't you know that most of the gut shown by these terrorists come from seeing our fear? That's a bully for you. Bullies function better by knowing that you fear them. And, you know, terrorists are bullies by default. 

Again, do you know that we give the terrorists some of the information they use against us via our online comments? For instance, if I mentioned the state where the said stampede occurred, I would have exposed them to more terrorist attacks. By mentioning the state, I would have indirectly told the terrorists, "this is a state where no one is ready to resist you". 

Please, I will stop here for now. I will try to find time tomorrow or next to share more about how we can mentally stay above the toxic social environment that's becoming the norm in Nigeria now.

Kindly let other people read this. You might just be saving someone and all of us by doing so. The more Nigerians who know this, the better for all of us. Any society's security system is like a chain. It's only as strong as its weakest link. 

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QUOTE: Nigeria's problems are more in Nigerian minds than in Nigerian structures and institutions.