As poverty deepens and insecurity and climate shocks multiply across the country, mental health has emerged as one of Nigeria’s silent front lines, a crisis playing out quietly in homes, schools, and workplaces.
Experts, advocates, and policymakers made this declaration at the Vanguard Mental Health Summit 3.0, held over the weekend in Lagos.
The summit, themed “Stemming the Rising Tide of Suicide in Nigeria” with the sub-theme “Substance and Silence: Unmasking the Dual Crisis of Addiction and Suicide,” brought together leading voices from government, psychiatry, media, and civil society to address what they described as an urgent national emergency, the growing link between poverty, trauma, and suicide.
Delivering his welcome address, Eze Anaba, editor of Vanguard Media Limited, said Nigeria’s worsening economic hardship was pushing more people to the edge. “Just last week, the World Bank reported that about 139 million Nigerians are now living in poverty, an increase of nine million from previous figures. This harsh reality pushes more people to the edge and, tragically, for some, it may lead to the conclusion that life is not worth living,” Anaba said.
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Anaba noted that mental-health challenges are not driven by economics alone but are compounded by insecurity, trauma, and social isolation. He called for greater empathy and legislative reform, particularly in the effort to decriminalise suicide attempts in Nigeria.
“In many developed countries, suicide is approached with care; here in Nigeria, attempts are still criminalised. That is why the bill to decriminalise suicide currently before the National Assembly matters so much. We hope today’s deliberations will help accelerate that change,” he said.
Anaba urged the media to continue to spotlight mental health as a national development issue, adding that, “Mental health affects productivity, public safety, education, and family life. When we invest in mental health, we invest in the strength of our people and the future of our nation,” he said.
In a stirring address, Deborah Omage from the Nigerian Mental Health Association (NMH), an advocacy network of more than fifty organisations, said the country was facing an overlapping crisis of economic struggle, insecurity, and climate disruption, all of which amplify vulnerability to mental illness.
“Risk is interconnected. Economic struggle, insecurity, and climate change amplify one another, creating compounded vulnerability to mental illness. Mental health is protected not only in clinics; it is protected by economic policy, security reform, and climate action,” Omage said.
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Citing recent data from the World Health Organisation, she revealed that over 720,000 people die by suicide annually worldwide, more than deaths from HIV, malaria, or homicides individually. “Here in Nigeria, the estimate is about 16,000 suicide deaths annually, a stark reminder of how urgent this challenge is,” she added.
The speaker told the story of a young Nigerian man who, after losing his business to inflation and flooding, told a clinician, ‘I no longer see a future that includes me,’ adding that this story could come from almost any part of Nigeria today.
Omage explained that Nigeria’s rising mental-health burden is directly linked to social and environmental conditions like economic hardship, which deepens despair and fuels anxiety and depression; insecurity, leaving psychological scars that persist long after violence subsides and climate shocks such as floods and droughts, causing trauma in real time, displacing families and destroying livelihoods.
“The mental-health impact of these crises doesn’t make headlines, but it changes the mood of entire communities. Fatigue, anger, resignation, and hopelessness become widespread,” she said.
The NMH representative called for policy-based interventions, noting that economic policy can be mental-health policy. She urged government to strengthen social protection, job creation, and climate-resilience measures, and welcomed the progress made on the National Suicide Prevention Bill 2024, sponsored by senator Asuquo Ekpenyong.
The bill, which has passed its first reading in the National Assembly, seeks to decriminalise attempted suicide and establish a national suicide prevention framework, including 24-hour crisis hotlines, aftercare services, and improved data systems. “Today, under our Criminal and Penal Codes, someone who attempts suicide can face up to one year in prison. Criminalisation deepens stigma and drives people away from care. The new bill reframes suicide attempts as cries for help and replaces punishment with compassion,” she said.
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Omage revealed that NMH played a key role in drafting and advocating for the bill, holding stakeholder meetings, and translating the text into Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and Pidgin so that every citizen can understand it. The federal government has reportedly set December 2025 as the target to fully decriminalise attempted suicide, a move that would align Nigeria with global best practices.
Beyond legislation, speakers at the summit called for stronger mental-health integration into primary care, training of non-specialist health workers, and community-based models that restore connection and hope.
Stakeholders closed with a message of resilience, stating, “Mental health is not a luxury for peaceful times. It is the foundation of resilience during turbulent ones. If we combine compassion with evidence, and policy with humanity, we can save lives and build a Nigeria where every mind has room to heal, to hope, and to dream.”
