AFRICA | Harry talks up mental health in Nigeria

LAGOS, Nigeria May 2024 – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are making a big push to raise mental health awareness while they’re in Nigeria to promote the Invictus Games, a competition the prince set up for wounded military veterans a decade ago.

In separate engagements with children at a local school and military officials, the couple have highlighted the need for more openness in discussing mental health challenges, and learning how to “kick stigma away.” Both Harry and Meghan have discussed their own mental health difficulties in the past.

Members of the British royal family have visited Nigeria more than half a dozen times since Queen Elizabeth II’s tour in 1956, four years before independence. Harry and Meghan are the latest to drop by since King Charles visited in 2018 while still a prince. Meghan can claim a more personal connection with Nigeria — two years ago she said a DNA test showed she was 43% Nigerian.

Their visit could draw attention to mental health in Nigeria as a public health concern requiring deliberate policy intervention. A National Mental Health law, signed last year to replace an antiquated pre-colonial ‘Lunacy Act,’ created a new department within the federal health ministry. It also barred discrimination against people who face mental health challenges. It’s supposed to have ushered in an era of mental health interventions which aim to provide care for those with mental health needs and protect their rights.