By Lillian Okenwa
While families of the recently released Abuja–Kaduna train victims, are raising alarm over the unstable and critical mental condition of their relations who to date have not received any strategic psychological or mental health care from the government, Nigeria’s Federal Government has announced the resumption of train services on the route before the end of the year.
The agony of families whose loved ones died during the attack and that of the last victim killed while on his way to his home town in Kebbi state alongside relatives who reunited with him after over 180 days in captivity can only be imagined. The unfortunate man was shot in his head by gunmen who laid ambush on the ever-busy Funtua – Gusau road. He reportedly died a few hours after he was rushed to Tsafe General Hospital, along the same highway.
The Victim was among the over six hundred passengers on board Abuja – Kaduna train attacked by terrorists on march 28th this year in Kaduna. One of the relatives driving the vehicle was also abducted by the terrorists to an unknown destination.
The Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, who gave the update on the resumption of train services disclosed that the federal government also planned to link up the 36 state capitals in Nigeria with a rail network in order to provide seamless means of transportation for the citizens.
Admitting the pains thrown up by the March 2022 attack on the Kaduna-Abuja train route, Sambo said that the government had learnt many lessons from the atrocity and also adopted many measures to prevent future attacks and give the users of the service a sense of security and safety.
Security experts however noted that despite several signs that the Abuja-Kaduna railway was susceptible to bandits’ attack and amid massive resources in loans and funds voted to revamp rail transportation across the country, the Federal Government failed to adequately protect passengers until the attack.
They maintain that aside from terrorists blowing up the rail track with explosives, other recent incidents along the corridor were warnings that it was only a matter of time before passengers on the Abuja-Kaduna route were attacked again, but the government failed to do the needful to provide protection for communities.
The experts also noted that as more people avoided the Abuja-Kaduna expressway, which has been a haven for kidnappers, and opted to travel by air or on the train to and from Abuja, it became clear that the bandits, who are being starved of potential abductees will try to attack travellers using airport and train commuters, but no significant security measure was known to have been taken to ensure the safety of these travellers.
Notwithstanding that Nigeria ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in 2007 and its Optional Protocol in 2010, recognizing the importance of mental health, the country lacks a national mental health policy.
The World Health Organization estimates that over 2 million of the country’s nearly 200 million residents suffer from depressive and anxiety disorders. Worse still, there are insufficient mental health workers in Nigeria to cater to the dispersed population, even without the burden of bandits and Boko Ha-ram-induced mental distress.
Even more worrisome is that healthcare facilities are now being attacked by bandits. Recently a group of armed bandits attacked a hospital in Niger state an official source said, a day after an attack on a health center in the same region denounced by Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The attack against the Abdussalam-Abubakar General Hospital in Gulu, in Niger State (northwestern Nigeria), was confirmed to AFP by the state commissioner of the police chief of the state, who said he was waiting for a full report on what happened there.
According to a resident of the town contacted by AFP, the gunmen stormed the hospital around 1:30 am and “opened fire indiscriminately”, killing “two people”. The attackers also took “about 20 people hostage,” including several medical staff, presumably to “treat their injured comrades in their camps.”
In the meantime, ten mental health specialist groups in northeast Nigeria conducted 294 outreach sessions from April to June 2018 and during the outreach, 5031 individuals in selected primary health care facilities and internally displaced peoples camp health facilities in northeast Nigeria were treated for different mental illnesses.
A total of 1276 individuals had severe emotional disorders, 1229 had seizure disorders associated with psychological distress, 925 medically unexplained somatic complaints, 774 had psychotic disorders, 349 had substance use disorder and 337 had other complaints.
Adewale Olusola Adeboye in his article “Addressing the Boko Haram-Induced Mental Health Burden in Nigeria” published in Health Hum Rights on 23 June 2021 has this to say.
“In Nigeria, the Boko Haram insurgency has opened up wide-ranging discussions regarding human security and human rights. The crisis has exposed the sheer neglect and near exclusion of people under mental distress from health facilities, despite the urgent need for adequate mental health support and care for those who have experienced extreme violence. If people are unable to receive mental health care, the crisis will likely lead to further violence and other human rights abuses.
“As well as ensuring that there are mental health care services available, government leaders must address the social determinants of mental health. This includes providing legal support to ensure justice for victims; promoting community enterprises to help build communal resilience; undertaking awareness and information campaigns on the value of mental health support interventions; and encouraging people to recognize that mental health is a human right. To achieve all of these things, new legislation and dedicated funding is needed…”
And while justice does not appear to be near for victims of terrorism and banditry, many Nigerians battling all manner of mental issues triggered by multifarious woes that have befallen the country, what has happened after incriminating items were reportedly found when operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) searched the residence of arrested bandit negotiator Mamu Tukur?
Incriminating materials including military accoutrements and large amounts of different currencies and denominations were found in his home.
Tukur, the publisher of Desert Herald, and the top negotiator for the Abuja- Kaduna train victims kidnapped in March has been accused of sponsoring terrorism within and outside Nigeria using journalism as a cover.
