Increasing reports of mental health challenges, deaths among young Nigerians

By Prince Samuel Adesegun Egunjobi

These ignorance and poor habits have also contributed to loss of young ones, a reason the modern scale of preference needs an evaluation as many are prioritizing unimportant items on their checklists and postponing the essential ones needed for mental, physical, psychological, financial and social wellness.

It has become a growing concern and reason to be worried as young widows are multiplying with weekly occurrence among youths to holds remembrance events (candle night) of a young promising soul who couldn’t fulfilled his/her destiny due to many reasons which many are linking to drug abuse, cultism, stress and continuous pursue of riches at the expense of their health.

The depressing Nigeria economy and peer influence have pushed many to adopt hard drugs, excessive drinking of alcohol, gambling, prostituting e. t. c as a viable alternative to swing their moods, source of happiness, opportunities for quick wealth and sexual satisfaction when other ambition fails.

A recent report from the United Kingdom highlighted multiple death of young Africans between 25-39 years of age and linking their loss to stress from working like a robot, resulting from shuttling buses between cities to meet daily work demand and night shift.

Nigerians are hardworking and many in diaspora are working to meet their luxury targets, support their families at home, saving and investing to achieve a real estate target, business expansion and retirement plan at the long run.

A viral post was recently shared on TikTok where a native woman of Anambra was capturing obituary posters of young men dying in their prime with their posters littering across wall pasted close to each other, she concluded that their wives are responsible for their death without supporting her conclusion with evidences.

She advised men to take care of themselves and not allow family pressure to send them to untimely grave, and flee from troublesome, promiscuous and chaotic women for them to live long to enjoy the reward of their hard labour, as Association of Landladies and Young Widows Social Clubs are the new trends in our society.

While most of the reported cases of kidney failures in Federal Medical Centres, Teaching Hospitals and Research laboratories are linked to excessive intake of alcohol, drug abuse, canned and unprocessed foods, the rising case of mental health challenges among young Africans is another cause for alarm.

The unnecessary pressure mounting on young Africans who couldn’t meet societal definition of material success, and others working day/night to keep up their relationship not to lose their partner to others, without appropriate and timely medical check-up to assess the state of vital organs and blood pressure.

These ignorance and poor habits have also contributed to loss of young ones, a reason the modern scale of preference needs an evaluation as many are prioritizing unimportant items on their checklists and postponing the essential ones needed for mental, physical, psychological, financial and social wellness.

Prince Samuel Adesegun Egunjobi, MBA X: @SamuelEgunjobiA.