Nigeria: Suicides, bad journalism and mental health

Feeds to the fed-up

Since Google Reader died I have used Feedly as my RSS aggregator which allows me to catch-up with blogs, news stories and events.

I take feeds from six Nigerian newspapers, and I might add a few more as I get used to their material and their reporting slant.

However, this afternoon I was left befuddled as I vacillated between utter disgust and incandescent rage.

Rotten journalism

PM News Nigeria published a piece about suicides being on the rise, and that is already a big problem if our youth are now resorting to taking their lives for whatever reasons around situation, circumstance or state of mind.

Journalism in Nigeria just hit a new low, well beneath the unprofessionalism of yellow journalism, absent proofreading or poor copy.

The news story PM News Nigeria published did not warn of the graphic images they attached to their report; one picture showed a boy on a slab, and as if that was not bad enough, there was another of the boy hanging from a noose. [I will not perpetrate this evil by providing a link to the story.]

This level of insensitivity that subscribes to the macabre and savage depiction is contemptuous, we must repudiate this in the strongest terms; it is odium in the extreme.

Mental illness and suicides

We could relate suicides to mental health or emotional issues, and we do not seem to understand that well in our culture; hence, we are unable to find ways to ameliorate the issue before it comes intractable.

Societal and cultural pressures elevating anxiety or creating depression all bottled up leaves a pressure cooker situation that presents suicide as the only pressure valve outlet.

These issues considering our obtuse religiosity are not just spiritual to be tackled with prayer and holy water. The public needs to be aware of psychological and psychiatric care for everyday problems.

The stigma associated with handling mental health issues looms large, we assume only ‘mad’ people or lunatics see psychiatrists. Education, information and enlightenment is necessary.

Therapy is key

I am of the opinion that we all need therapy at some stage of our lives, we must not confuse therapy with counselling, and qualified professionals should handle these issues.

The other issue with these suicides is whether these are really suicides or murders rigged up as suicides.

The question is whether we have the detection, medical examination or forensic expertise to determine the differences and the wherewithal to pursue these cases to the logical and just conclusion.

Could this be murder?

We cannot just assume suicides are the end of the story, there should be thorough investigations of the circumstances to ascertain the whys and determine the possible local suicide risks that might exhibit the vulnerabilities that presage these tragic events.

I hope PM News Nigeria and other journaling organisations or people will recognise that pandering to the basest instincts of feeding the public with the macabre is irresponsible at best, words fail me in describing the extreme that this represents.

May the souls of the unfortunately departed rest in peace and may their survivors find strength and fortitude to bear their losses.

Nigeria: Atrocious Abuse in the Church Remains a Problem

Cruel and unjust punishments

With the way we espouse religion to a fundamentalist and extremist extent, it is important to highlight elements of our association with Christianity as practiced that must be condemned in totality.

First, the case of witchcraft exorcisms where two teenagers possibly stigmatised and victimised by their community were placed in the hands of psychotic, sociopathic and sadistic church leaders who bound them and starved them for 3 days leading to the death of one.

I am at pains to find the manual of exorcism these people used to go about this bizarre activity that just demonstrates cruelty unspeakable, all in the name of God.

False teachings and devilish acts

Whilst there might be passages in the Scripture that address witchcraft, the exorcism act which is called deliverance should not constitute harmful and cruel punishments with torture techniques that one will not find in a gulag, all in the name of God.

The idea that a somewhat spiritual affliction can be fought with physical means is foolish, if not idiotic, but we are held in trawl of these fantastic and spectacular acts that leave us in dread of the supernatural from a bad perspective rather than be in awe of the miraculous, if that is what is to be expected.

Wrong treatment for a problem

Then again, in another development, a mentally-ill man was taken to a church for prayers and possible help, which that pastor suggested could be offered, all in the name of God.

Being left in the care of the pastor, by circumstance, happenstance or carelessness, the man having been prayed for and then taken for psychiatric help was left in the care of a stranger and eventually went missing.

Whilst, there is nothing to suggest the pastor is responsible for the disappearance of the man, we live in a society superstitious enough for some to assume and suggest the man has been used for macabre ritual purposes.

Shamanism taking the fore

In fact, it is strange that the parents of the man who sought the help of a man of God for their son with faith in Christian practices now begin to believe that the disappearance of their son is linked to ritualistic purposes.

Though the pastor has been released from custody, he is at best careless considering the person put in his care was vulnerable and should have been under constant supervision, for that alone, there is a case to answer though how to follow that through is not clear.

However, the greater issue here is our lack of understanding of mental health issues which we deem spiritual and usually associate with spiritism, witchcraft, and other black arts.

Understanding mental health issues

Whilst one cannot entirely contemn this long-held belief system, we need to approach mental health from a more logical, systematic and constructive perspective, employing professional psychologists and psychiatrists to analyse, diagnose and suggest ameliorating therapies.

Besides, it is important to know what the mental disability is, which could be anything from autism, through anti-social behaviours to bipolar disorders, and many other conditions that we just lump together as madness.

Some of these conditions could be environmental or even chemical imbalances that we take to churches where people are barely trained to understand what they are tackling that they resort to shamanistic rituals pretending to alleviate suffering which they are not in fact doing.

Reread, revisit, review, repudiate

In all, if we are to rely on the miraculous for problem resolution, it is only right that we go back and study the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles to appreciate and understand what they did to help people in circumstances where modern medical practice would almost equate the kinds of miracles that were wrought then.

If any of the acts involve cruelty, punishments, force or any exertion beyond voice of command, we should begin to suspect that the purveyors of such solutions have no such power to help than to violate, brutalise and abuse the vulnerable – there is no licence given in the Scriptures for abuse nor should we condone such from any who portend to have spiritual authority over us.

Let us be smart about abuse in churches and condemn such in totality, there are many horrible things done, all in the name of God.

May Justice come for the killing of Yanire Izaga

Charged with Murder

The sad story of the death of Yanire Izaga continues as news comes that her highly successful insurance executive father, Alberto Izaga is being charged with her murder.

I wrote about this a few months ago when we heard the news that a two-year old girl who had inadvertently disturbed the Sunday morning lie-in of her parents was battered to pulp, it transpired that she died of head injuries two days later and her father got sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

Now the charge of murder has been made and thankfully, it is not manslaughter because nothing on earth can excuse the kind of treatment that was meted out to a toddler who just was seeking love and attention as any child that has parents would do, the prerequisite of being loving parents should be a foregone conclusion.

The duty of parenthood

If the parents cannot love or the child happens to be an unfortunate result of an unintended impregnation (I cringe at this construction), the child should be put in the custody or other more caring members of the extended family or put up for adoption where many who suffer child-birth difficulties would cherish such a wonderful treasure.

In any case, there is a need for justice to requite this egregious abuse of innocent life as well as the need to make a serious example of this man who must not only regret all his life what he has done, the maximum extent of legal and judicious sanction must be visited upon him.

Alberto would most likely hire the best lawyers money can buy, but apart from mitigating statements to leniency in the strength of condemnation that would come from the bench, any lawyer that attempts the defence of diminished responsibility must have had their hearts heating the pools of fire and brimstone in the depths of the dark world.

No parent can diminish their responsibility of care to that of murdering their child, neither should the mental health institutions allow this to pass for some technicality that would allow murderers of children to return to our streets or sire children ever again.

A mother in murder

For now, I have no words for the mother who regardless of what kind of domestic relationship she might have had with her husband should have done well to shield her daughter from this unspeakable violence.

The law might not find her culpable, but if there is any Great Judgment to face in the future, this must feature very high on her charge sheet.

In the midst of other prevailing issues as the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and the Niagara Falls leaks from the Portuguese police who seem to be excelling at rank incompetence, the matter at hand should be centred around the child – justice for the death of Yanire and delivering Madeleine dead or alive so we can move on with lessons learnt from the strange evil world that our children now find they must inhabit.

To Bedlam or Belmarsh and throw the key away

Success and distress

Sometimes rather serious events highlight difficult to explain situations where the law has to intervene for the safety of all concerned.

In this case, a man of 36 has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 for some very disturbing domestic events.

The said man is a director of Swiss Re, the world's largest reinsurer with revenues of over $28 billion and as the head of life and health products would have serious responsibilities.

Now, I have worked in the City years ago and I have seen the kind of pressure that people can be under to perform, to excel and to get ahead - people should however find ways of relaxing so as not to carry the travails of work back home.

Kids do it all the time

So Sunday morning the man and his wife seem to have a lie-in then little daughter gets up early to visit mum and dad, she ends up seriously battered, with life threatening injuries, lying conscious bleeding from the mouth, nose and ears.

One might now wonder if this serious act of child abuse was a first offence or just one of those many where this time it just went too far - the girl was only 2 years old.

She might have been warned or even threatened with menace if she ever came in to disturb mummy and daddy whilst they were still asleep; in any case, it is still unforgivable.

One law for children

If an adult had suffered this kind of beating, the culprit would have been done for Grievous Bodily Harm, maybe attempted murder and definitely would have been in a police cell awaiting arraignment, however, because it is a child, the culprit is mercifully granted hospitalisation for what is presumably a mental health issue.

Mental illness is agreed by most psychiatrists to cover schizophrenia, anorexia nervosa, major depression, bipolar disorder and other similar illnesses, "(severe) mental impairment" to cover mental retardation (learning disability) and "psychopathic disorder" to cover the personality disorders.

I might agree that there is a mental health issue here though this might be closer to a personality disorder than a mental illness because no one beats up a child to unconsciousness for any purpose and definitely not your own child as a parent or guardian.

It would be expedient of the police to dispense with this case with the utmost alacrity and remove the mental health safeguards to treat this man as a heinous psychopathic criminal who is also a danger to society at large.

Closing this case

His career must now end at Swiss Re whilst hopefully the company having reposed such confidence in the man so as not to have people question his sanity should bequeath a largesse to ensure the welfare of this little girl is comprehensively assured to adulthood.

I am not sure the woman involved who might also be the girl's mother is of adequate capability to continue to exercise the lien of parentage over the girl; she might have to be fostered by extended family that might help accelerate the healing of her trauma.

I do pray God that the girl does survive and recover fully; meanwhile, the charge of attempted murder should not be far from the hearts, minds and lips of prosecutors.

Regardless of the pressures we have at work, it is no excuse to return home and take our frustrations out on our families, there are just no mitigating circumstances for that kind of behaviour apart from the fact that it shows how less of a man the "so-called" successful businessman really is.

Whether to Bedlam or to Belmarsh lock him up and throw away the key - this is completely unforgivable.