Nigeria launches first mental health policy tracker to monitor implementation of reforms

Nigeria has launched its first public-facing Mental Health Policy Commitment Tracker, a digital platform designed to independently monitor implementation of the country’s mental health laws and policies amid concerns over slow progress in carrying out key reforms.

Developed by advocacy organisation Nigerian Mental Health (NMH), the tracker was officially launched virtually on Monday after an initial public unveiling in May.

NMH announced the launch in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES.

According to the organisation, the platform enables policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations and members of the public to monitor progress on commitments under the National Mental Health Act and related policies, including mental health financing, workforce development, treatment access and state-level reforms.

Why the tracker matters

Late President Muhammadu Buhari signed the National Mental Health Bill into law in January 2023 after two failed legislative attempts dating back to 2003.

The legislation replaced the outdated Lunacy Act and marked a major shift in Nigeria’s approach to mental healthcare by strengthening the rights of people living with mental health conditions and providing for institutions such as a Department of Mental Health Services and a Mental Health Fund.

However, more than three years later, implementation of several provisions of the law has remained slow.

According to NMH, key institutional structures required under the Act, including the Department of Mental Health, have yet to be fully established.

The organisation also said the federal government missed its December 2025 target to fully decriminalise attempted suicide, while implementation of the 2023 National Mental Health Policy and the country’s first Suicide Prevention Policy Framework has been limited.

It said these implementation gaps informed the development of the tracker, which is intended to independently verify whether mental health commitments are being translated into concrete action.

Speaking at the launch, NMH founder Chime Asonye said policy commitments should be accompanied by measurable implementation.

“Visibility must be matched by measurable execution,” he said, adding that the platform is designed to ensure commitments lead to tangible legal, institutional and service delivery outcomes.

According to NMH, the tracker serves as a public dashboard that aggregates government data, legislative updates, budget documents, verified stakeholder submissions and community-reported evidence.

Each policy commitment is assigned an implementation status, such as “Not Started, In Progress, Delayed or Completed”, allowing users to monitor progress across the federal and state levels.

The platform tracks regulatory milestones under the National Mental Health Act, as well as governance structures, budget allocations, workforce capacity, access to treatment, affordability and broader rights-based reforms.

Stakeholders back initiative

The launch brought together government officials, policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations, development partners, media practitioners and representatives of the creative industry.

Among the organisations supporting the initiative are Lagos Mind, Mind Over Matters NG, Stilt NG, Our Beta Life, the Mental Health Transformation Organisation (MHT) and Hevolve Foundation.

Mental health advocate and musician Hadiza Blell-Olo, popularly known as Di’ja, urged public figures to move beyond raising awareness by supporting partnerships that strengthen mental health reforms, noting that the tracker provides a framework for improving policy accountability.

Also speaking, the National Mental Health Coordinator at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Tunde Ojo, said independent accountability mechanisms can help strengthen implementation and improve service delivery.

NMH said the platform is open to policymakers, practitioners, researchers and members of the public, who can submit verified implementation updates and feedback to improve transparency and support mental health reforms across the country.

By Fortune Eromonsele, Premium Times

Related story: Nigerian woman creates country's first mental health helpline

Nigerians Churches Are Fighting Soccer-Fueled Gambling Addictions

After Victor Adedeji’s father died from injuries sustained in a car accident in 2011, Adedeji, then 14 years old, spent seven months living at his grandmother’s home in Ilesa, a remote town in Osun state, southwest Nigeria. In the mornings, Adedeji woke up to the smell of the fish his grandmother had purchased from local fishermen. He arranged the catch in a basin, placed it on his head, and walked the streets all day to sell the fish for 70–150 naira each (then about 50 cents to $1 USD).

Eventually Adedeji’s mother sent for him and two of his siblings to return home to Bayelsa state, 270 miles south of Ilesa. Her job as a trader selling menswear didn’t earn much, so he felt a responsibility to provide for his family.

“I felt I [must] man up since my mother was the only one taking care of us,” he said. “I just wanted to do something to get money.”

Adedeji thought if he could find a way to earn even a few hundred naira, he could help his family. Friends he met through his mother’s Roman Catholic parish introduced him to sports betting, luring him with promises of quick wins. Soon, 15-year-old Adedeji became a frequent visitor at betting shops in the area, where he wagered on European soccer leagues. He bet every naira he had but with little yield.

Adedeji fell into depression, losing interest in his studies, which the parish sponsored. For more than a decade he tried to quit, but the stories of others who won kept him going: “There was also the promise that the more you play, the higher chance of eventually winning big.”

Sports betting is a booming business in Africa, where betting companies report millions of dollars in profit yearly. Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya rank as the continent’s top three countries for sports gambling. Nigeria alone has over 100 betting companies, with shops stationed near neighborhoods and public spaces for easy access. The rapid rise of smartphone internet access and online betting made gambling as easy as pushing a button. Most bettors are between 18 and 40 years old.

Many Nigerians see gambling, especially sports betting, as a quick way to overcome financial burdens. Over half of Nigeria’s population lives below the national poverty line, making many people desperate for extra income. Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission estimates more than 60 million Nigerians—around a quarter of the population—gamble daily, spending about $5.5 million USD.

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup games dominate sports coverage, men and women like Adedeji may be especially vulnerable. Nigerians typically bet on soccer games, especially big European leagues in England, Spain, and Germany. Macquarie, a financial services firm, forecast that the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the biggest-ever betting event, with bets exceeding $50 billion globally, a significant increase from the $35 billion placed at the last World Cup four years ago in Qatar.

For Adedeji, sports betting felt like a trap. “It caught up with me,” he told CT. “There wasn’t any sign of fulfillment. I was never satisfied.”

Adedeji said that in 2017, he felt burned-out from sports betting. He decided to learn fashion design at a family friend’s tailoring shop, looking for something else on which to focus. Yet he couldn’t quit his addiction.

Gambling also took a toll on his family. In 2019, he moved to the capital of Abuja, hoping for a fresh start. But instead of paying his sister’s college tuition or easing his mother’s financial burdens as he intended, he lost his wages gambling. One day in 2024, he entered a betting shop where he owed about 20,000 naira (then about $15 USD). He couldn’t pay. Adedeji said the employees didn’t let him leave, insisting he settle the debt. Hoping to borrow money, Adedeji called his younger brother, who then told his mother.

“She was heartbroken and devastated,” Adedeji said. “Now everybody knew. I couldn’t hide anymore.”

Samson Ocholi, executive director of Right Mind Homes, a Bible-based recovery initiative for addicts in Abuja, said while the economy may play a role, idolatry drives betting in Nigeria.

“The major reason is that people want to make money without working, but it comes back to bite you,” he said.

Ocholi said even those who win don’t properly invest the money, “because they have not been disciplined and haven’t learned to manage money.” He encourages parents to keep a watchful eye on their children, as neglecting parental responsibility leaves teens and young adults vulnerable to peer pressure that promotes harmful habits like gambling.

Friends and celebrities also endorse and promote gambling on social media. Former Nigerian soccer stars like Augustine “Jay-Jay” Okocha and Nwankwo Kanu serve as brand ambassadors for top sports betting companies and are regularly featured on their advertisements. Nearly 300 topflight soccer clubs in Europe, which are closely followed by Nigerians, have partnerships with betting companies.

“If people, especially youths, see an influential person doing it, then they believe they too can,” Ocholi said. “It is a way to glamorize it and make it [seem] normal.”

But the consequences are dire.

Stephen Kolawole, a recovering addict at Right Mind Homes, said betting seems harmless at first. Eventually, though, Kolawole bet half his college’s school fees, preventing him from finishing his studies. Whenever he ran out of money, he thought his addiction was over. Then a paycheck would send him off on another spree. When he kept asking his parents for money, they checked his bank statement and realized he had a gambling problem.

“It was a tough experience,” he said. “I knew that I needed help but didn’t know what to do.”

A 2022 study revealed that a quarter of college-aged callers to helplines reported suicidal ideation related to gambling. In 2021, researchers from the Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit said a 16-year-old boy killed himself after gambling and losing money he had stolen from his employers.

“[Gambling] has caused people to be pierced with many sorrows,” said Jeremiah Aluwong, the presiding pastor of LightWk, a nondenominational Christian mission organization in Kaduna in northwestern Nigeria. “It makes you a liar, a cheat, and leaves you with several broken relationships.”

Aluwong, who runs a recovery center helping 15 men—former drug dealers and gamblers—overcome their addictions, said sports betting has led to an increase in crime and other social vices as many youths seek ways to fund their lifestyles.

He said the spread of the prosperity-gospel preaching in Nigeria encouraged the rise of gambling by equating wealth with God’s blessing, often without clearly differentiating between earnings from hard work and vices like gambling. He urged pastors to resist practices such as blessing cars and accepting large tithes from church members without first inquiring about the source of their income.

“The pulpit is not holding Christians accountable,” Aluwong told CT.

The poorly enforced regulations and shifting laws can further push young people toward addiction. In sub-Saharan Africa, gambling companies take advantage of a “regulatory void surrounding online forms of gambling and the promotion of gambling products,” a 2022 study said.

In November 2024, the Nigerian Supreme Court nullified the 2005 National Lottery Act, which had regulated betting and gambling in Nigeria. The court held that lotteries and sports betting belonged in the control of state governments. At least 10 of the 36 states have already created their own regulations, but others lag behind on this issue.

Eneh Chinaza, an Abuja-based lawyer, told CT the ruling doesn’t directly affect betting’s legality but loosens regulations restraining underage gambling. Chinaza said Nigeria doesn’t have any laws mandating that betting companies curb addictions.

“The laws and regulations on betting addictions in Nigeria are not very strong,” Chinaza said. “It is still an ongoing conversation.”

Adedeji said that last year he knew something had to change: “I was oppressed psychologically.”

He finally confessed his gambling addiction to his pastor, who advised him to visit LightWk’s addiction recovery center in Kaduna. Adedeji said LightWk taught him to see his gambling addiction as covetous.

“I learned that Christ was the only one who could save me,” he said.

After completing the recovery program, Adedeji said he started working at the center to help others discover the same freedom and forgiveness. While continuing his work as a fashion designer, Adedeji said he is also rebuilding relationships with his mother and siblings. Despite the strain caused by his past addiction, Adedeji said they’ve been welcoming and helpful.

“I thought my gambling wasn’t harming anyone,” he said. “But that was a lie.”

By Emmanuel Nwachukwu, Christianity Today

Related story: Google bans gambling ads in Nigeria

Anti-drug agency shut down large meth laboratory in Nigeria

Nigeria’s anti-drug agency said it has busted a transnational organized drug syndicate involving Nigerians and Mexicans in the southwestern region of the country.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said late Wednesday that its special operations unit shut down “an industrial-scale clandestine laboratory” in a remote forest in the Ijebu area of Ogun state, which shares a border with Lagos, the country’s economic capital. The agency added that it is the biggest drug bust ever in the country.

The agency said in a statement that it arrested seven members of the “cartel,” which included four Nigerians and three Mexicans, during the operation, and three more in follow-up arrests.

“This network did not just traffic drugs; they were actively manufacturing industrial-scale quantities of highly lethal illicit substances right on our soil, threatening the national security and public health of Nigeria,” Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa, the agency’s head, said.

According to the statement, the operation resulted in the seizure of 2.4 tons of chemical materials, including methamphetamine, worth 480 billion naira ($363 million) and two vehicles.

In recent years, West and Central Africa have emerged as a hot spot for global trafficking and manufacturing of illicit drugs due to porous borders and corruption, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

AP

Related story: Growing meth market in Nigeria

‘Nigeria records one suicide every 33 seconds’

An anti-suicide advocacy group, Suicide Is No Solution, yesterday, raised the alarm over Nigeria’s escalating suicide crisis, highlighting that a death occurs every 33 seconds and an estimated 15,000 to 16,000 Nigerians die by suicide annually.

The group warned that the issue required serious attention and should not be trivialised.

Project Coordinator of the group, Mr Toye Arulogun, in a statement, said the figures are part of a wider global concern, with over 95,000 deaths by suicide recorded worldwide in just the first two months of this year.

He said this underlined the urgent need for public awareness and responsible content creation.
Arulogun said: “We have noticed in the last couple of weeks an upswing of reckless and insensitive online content by Nigerian content creators promoting deaths by suicide.

“Most of the content also mentions and displays some brands as suicide tools or agents, thereby pointing anyone with suicide ideation or contemplation to what to use; bringing the name, image and reputation of such brands into disrepute.

“What our content creators should be doing is to come up with skits dissuading Nigerians from killing themselves, no matter the situation, rather than the current wave of self-harm promotion.”

By Adeola Badru, Vanguard

Nigeria to decriminalize attempted suicide by December 2025

The federal government has said Nigeria is on course to decriminalise attempted suicide by December 2025, in a move designed to replace punitive laws with a health-centred approach.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, disclosed this on Wednesday at a press briefing in Abuja to mark the 2025 World Suicide Prevention Day, themed “Changing the narrative on suicide, creating hope through action.”

World Suicide Prevention Day was established in 2003 by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) in partnership with WHO.

Observed annually on 10 September, it seeks to unite communities, governments and organisations under the shared belief that suicide is preventable.

The triennial theme for 2024–2026 is “Changing the Narrative on Suicide.”

The campaign urges societies to challenge myths, break stigma and create safe spaces for compassion and dialogue. It also calls on governments to make suicide prevention and mental health care a priority in public policy.

From punishment to care

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Nigeria records an estimated 15,000 suicide deaths annually.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over 720,000 people globally die by suicide every year, ranking it as the third leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29. Nearly three-quarters of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.

Lifeline International, drawing on WHO data, further highlights that for each suicide, at least 20 others attempt to take their own lives.

Applied to Nigeria, this translates to more than 300,000 people experiencing suicidal distress each year, many of whom remain without safe or supportive avenues to seek help.

The country’s sections 327 and 231 of the Criminal and Penal Codes make attempted suicide a criminal offence.

To change course, the government in October 2024 inaugurated a National

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Nigeria records an estimated 15,000 suicide deaths annually.

Taskforce on the Decriminalisation of Attempted Suicide, chaired by legal scholar, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe.

The taskforce was mandated to guide the country’s transition to a more compassionate, public health-oriented response.

Mr Pate, represented at the event by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Daju Kachollom, said significant progress had been recorded since the taskforce began work.

“A government white paper has been finalised to guide national policy, while a draft amendment to the National Mental Health Act 2021, now the National Mental Health Amendment Bill 2025, proposes the repeal of punitive provisions in the Criminal and Penal Codes,” he said.

The draft bill also seeks to bar the prosecution of suicide survivors and provide for care and psychosocial support.

Next steps

According to Mr Pate, the draft bill has been adopted as the official position of the ministry and is undergoing statutory review with the Attorney-General of the Federation.

He added that the next stage will be presenting a memo to the Federal Executive Council for transmission of an Executive Bill to the National Assembly.

“The evidence is clear; increasing public awareness, early identification of warning signs, access to quality mental health care, and community support can reduce suicide rates. This reform is both urgent and necessary,” he said.

A growing concern

Daju Kachollom, in her opening remarks delivered on her behalf by the Director of Port Health Services, Nse Akpan, admitted that suicide cases are under-reported in Nigeria but remain a growing concern.

Ms Kachollom noted that criminalising suicide attempts does not save lives. Rather, it worsens stigma and discourages people from reaching out for help.

She stressed the ministry’s determination to pursue a more humane response to mental health emergencies.

The National Coordinator of the National Mental Health Programme, Tunde Ojo, also reaffirmed the government’s commitment, noting that those struggling with suicidal thoughts require compassion, not punishment.
Support from partners

In a goodwill message, the Vice President of Integration and Nigeria Country Director at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Olufunke Fasawe, noted that Nigeria is among top countries with high suicide cases.

Represented by Chizoba Fashanu, Director of Infectious Diseases, Essential Medicines, Mental Health and Commodities Access at CHAI, she said the initiative has worked with the government for nearly two decades and, in the last two years, has supported innovative mental health programmes focusing on depression, anxiety, and suicide management.

By Fortune Eromonsele, Premium Times

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Nigeria to decriminalize attempted suicide

Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Mohammad Pate, assures that Nigeria will soon join countries that have decriminalized attempted suicide.

Speaking at the 2024 World Suicide Prevention Day event in Abuja, Prof. Pate revealed that his ministry is working with the Office of the Attorney General to address the law criminalizing attempted suicide.

Nigeria has launched a National Suicide Strategic Framework (2023-2030) to identify risk factors, strategic objectives, and interventions for suicide prevention.

Prof. Pate emphasized that suicide prevention is a collective responsibility, urging a society that values mental health and provides care for all.

Africa’s suicide rate is 11.2 per 100,000, higher than the global average. In Nigeria, it’s 12.9 per 100,000, with young people (15-29 years) most affected.

This year’s event theme, “Changing the Narrative on Suicide,” aims to raise awareness about reducing stigma and encouraging open conversations to prevent suicides.

The ministry has taken significant steps to address mental health needs through treatment, prevention, and promotion.

For more information on Nigeria’s efforts to decriminalize attempted suicide and mental health initiatives, consider searching online for the latest updates.

By Joseph Erunke, Vanguard

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