(http://fmi.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/DSC_0025-300x199.jpg) Governor Sa'idu Dakingari of Kebbi State has said that the sum of 50 million naira is being committed by the State Government with contributions from the Local Governments to cater for the mentally ill under its Akada/Zakad Scheme.
He made this known on Saturday when he joined members of the National Good Governance Tour led by the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku on an inspection of the Hajiya Turai Yar'Adua General Hospital, Zauro/Ambursa, Kebbi State.
The Governor disclosed that apart from the commitments of the State and Local Governments, individuals and contractors in the state also remit funds to the state's social service scheme to cater for the patients.
"We have been running a programme for the mentally ill for the past 5 years. Every week on Saturday, four specialist doctors attend to the mentally ill patients who are out patients. The programme has been very successful and that is why the state government maintained this programme", Alh. Dakingari said.
The former Accountant General of the State, Alh. Muhamadu Kwabo and Chairman of the Akada/Zakad Board told the Team that the services of about four doctors are engaged every 2 weeks. "They come here and look after our patients. We have patients all over the state. We now have over 7,000 patients. At the moment, 5,000 are in our register, and the rest are being taken care of on temporary basis because we have not registered them yet", Kwabo stated.
Dr. Ismail Shamsudeen, who is one of the visiting doctors in the hospital, said since the programme started it has gone a long way in reducing cases of mentally ill health. He said the programme had also helped in enlightening patients and people of the state on the causes of mental illness which is often attributed to spiritual problems.
"Not only that, the Government has also helped in financing the drugs that the patients use, because they are not too common. They also help in conveying them from their various local governments to the hospital and back", Dr. Shamsudeen added.
Responding to questions from members of the Tour, Dr. Shamsudeen said over 1000 new patients are treated at the Hospital yearly.
Speaking, the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku recalled that two days ago on arrival in the state, the Governor had declared that there were no mentally ill people on the streets of Kebbi. He said since then he had been observing and so far no mental person was noticed on the streets of Kebbi.
"I asked him what is the Magic. Is it that in Kebbi there is no mental ill health. He said 'no' that he (the governor) started a programme to mobilize from the streets people who are mentally ill and provide services for them and that the programme has been going on for about 5 years. It was started by late Prof. Gwandu and he found that a lot of these people actually get well and are returning to their businesses and their homes", Mr. Maku disclosed.
"What is instructive is that someone here is looking at people who are mentally ill. If you go to all the streets of Nigeria, you will see people on the streets. People who are mentally ill. Some are run over by vehicles and they also constitute a hazard to other citizens who are healthy and we don't seem to worry about these people, we just leave them on the street. But here we have an example of a State Government that is now saying, 'look these people are human beings and we can now look after them'.
"I think for me the most important thing is that an effort is being made to look after people who are mentally ill in Kebbi State and this is going on in all the 21 local governments and there is a system in place to bring them from their various local governments to receive treatment and take them back. The point is that government must care. Every state government must take this as a challenge", Maku added.
Speaking on Tree Planting as it relates to good health, the Minister pointed out that the greatest challenge of Northern Nigeria is environment. "Over and above insecurity, the environment is the greatest challenge we have. The Environment is the number one factor that defines mental health even our behaviour and attitude. If you live in a very hostile environment, the tendency is it will affect your physical health and mental health", the Information Minister stressed.
Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria
That is the right thing they are planning to do. I kudos them big time for this move they are about to take. Bigups to them for this initiative