Prof. Chinedu Nebo, former Power Minister, on Monday said that 64 million Nigerians suffer from one form of mental illness or the other deserving attention.     

Nebo made the comment while speaking as a guest lecturer at the 2nd Public Lecture organized by the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu in collaboration with the West African College of Nursing; VANGUARD reports.

He said, ''it is speculated that 64 million Nigerians suffer from one form of mental illness or the other deserving attention''.

''I will confess that while Government has built modern diagnostic centres, dialysis and ophthalmological centres, and constructed more than 710 Primary Health Care Centres throughout our political wards in Enugu State, we are only beginning to give priority towards optimizing and modernizing our. Psychiatric Mental Health Institutions in the State to meet required demands.

''The belief that many Nigerians seem to hold that mental disorder is a result of supernatural forces and, therefore, only responds to cure through traditional practices and supernatural incantations, must give way and face the realities of modern conditions, which in fact, produce the stresses that lead to different level of mental conditions.