Ben Ezinma
15 November 2009
opinion
They come in different sizes and ages. They can be found dancing to music only if they can hear, laughing at jokes only if they are told or engrossed in a drama piece only if their eyes can see. Some of them are bound by heavy chains to walls or beds or other such heavy objects and locked up in a room. These are the forgotten ones, children with mental problems in Nigeria .
The term "mental illness" is used as a catch-all embracing neurosis, phychosis, mental retardation and so on.
According to Dr.Alex Otakpo, a child psychiatrist, a vast majority of mentally ill juveniles suffer from mental retardation, a state in which their mental development is seriously impaired and falls below averages. This condition arises from severe damage to the brain of the victim before birth, during birth or in the early stages of childhood. Because the damage to the brain is irreversible, the condition has no remedy; the rest percentage of mentally ill juveniles is shared between psychosis and neurosis.
It is sad that despite the marginal increase in the cases of mentally ill children, the problem is swept under the carpet, ignored, worst still no attention whatsoever is paid to the children. While a substantial numbers of children with mental disorder are kept at home, often locked away from public view, many of them wander the streets, seeking refuge at bus stops and market places. Some are under the care of traditional healers or gatherers while only a few are catered for at the psychiatric hospitals where such facility is available.
Juvenile mental illness is a health and social disaster crying for attention.
The wanderer could be found shuffling around the community in various stages of nudity, their ages range from between eight and 17 without home or board. They often colonize bus stop sheds where they sleep at night and keep the odds and ends they gather in their roaming all over the sprawling towns.
Sometimes older persons also with mental problems chase them away from those sheds and take them over. And because of the superstitious nature of the society, some of these kids get accused of witch-craft and are lynched. In the rural communities, they are seen in the market squares or roaming around during the market days. Also, gatherings such as funeral, marriage ceremonies etc. attract their presence.
Nevertheless, it appears as though the juvenile wanderers constitue only a minority of wandering persons with serious mental problems.
Reports abound of instances of rape of wandering females with mental disorders. But these are not the usual or normal cases of rape; the gruesome twist to these cases is they are usually perpetrated on the recommendation of some traditional healers as a means to propitiate some gods, the neutralization of some spell or curse or more frequently for the acquisition of wealth. Except in cases where the recommendation states that the victim must be advanced in age, the young female of between 15 and 17 with mental problems is usually the prime candidate.
Some of these mad children are also murdered as sacrifice to some gods by person seeking wealth, power, virility or some other "divine favour".
Other, albeit lesser violations, include crude, violent treatment by members of the public. Mentally ill children are beaten with whips in attempt to chase them out from compounds into which they may have wandered. Sometimes, they are made to do heavy work like chopping firewood, digging soak-away pit, carrying blocks of brick or bags of cement, after which they are paid less than their fellow labourer who do not suffer from any mental problems. Despite their conditions, they still have their fundamental human rights violated.
However, we should not lose the sight of the fact that mentally ill children are human beings like any of us, but only sick, like we also fall sick from time to time. The sick children deserve care, love, respect and protection from the public and not despise or abuse.
All these are violations of their rights to life, protection from abduction, to protection from abuse and neglect, to protection from sexual exploitation and to protection from engaging in labour that is a threat to their health. This harvest of violations demand that society should not only become interested in these young victims but this interests must be translated into concrete, urgent action to create condition which will protect them from these violations and remedy their disorder with their consent.
Since some mental illness can be prevented, there is need to create public awareness on how to prevent mental illness in children. Some juvenile cases of mental disorder can be traced to the habit of mothers during and after pregnancy.
In bringing succor to mentally ill children, all hands must be on deck; the churches, NGOs, media and government. Again, the government should demonstrate extra political will and commitment to assist the juvenile mentally ill through provision of functional homes, free medical treatment/ services for the patients. P
Besides, parents who have mentally ill children should not leave or disown, worst still push them out to be wandering about which indeed exposes them to the dangers already mentioned, rather such parents should seek help from destitute homes, mentally ill homes, psychiatric hospitals and other well established centres.
As the number of children with mental illness are on the increase, the government should step up programmes for the tiny princes and princesses by establishing more destitute homes in the states and LGAs, better still make the existing ones functional.
Finally, governments should launch free treatment and medical schemes for juvenile mentally sick. We should truly be our brothers' keeper by putting these weak ones among us in public agenda.
Comrade Ezinma is a human rights activist and program manager of Child Rights Network (CHIRN) a Non-Governmental Organization, based in Umuahia,Abia State, Nigeria
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