Buhari signs mental health bill after two failed attempts

PREMIUM TIMES 

President Muhammadu Buhari has finally signed into law the Mental Health Bill 2021 after two failed attempts at overhaul in 2003 and 2013.

The bill, which was harmonised by both the upper and lower chambers of the National Assembly in 2021, is the first legislative reform adopted in the field since the country’s independence, and will also replace the Lunacy Act of 1958.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Ibrahim Oloriegbe, confirmed the development in a post on his Twitter handle.

Mr Oloriegbe, who defeated the former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, during the 2019 general election, is a first-timer in the upper legislative chamber, and sponsor of the bill.

In December 2022, a memorandum obtained by PREMIUM TIMES and signed by the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Olatunde Ojo, showed that the National Assembly passed the bill and forwarded it to the President on 28 November 2022 for assent “in consonance with the provisions of the Acts Authentication Act Cap. A2, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004”.

However, in a joint statement, a civil society organisation – Nigerian Mental Health – and other campaigners commended the president for assenting to the bill, noting that the bill will establish human rights protections for those with mental health.

The body urges the National Assembly to “ensure gazetted copies of the bill are available to citizens, so they know their new legal rights.”

The group said organisations and professionals within the sector are eagerly anticipating that the bill will bring about the desired changes in mental health management in Nigeria…