In this desperate ugly economic woes we are suffering, some persons now see madness as holiday from the troubles of daily survival. Being mad makes you an expatriate in a sense with special conditions as you barely pay for your meals with guaranteed security. Insanity thus becomes one small motel you can lodge in temporarily to be off the daily bustle of the Nigerian life.

And in line with this, more persons are running mad by the day. According to Ogun State Commissioner for Health Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, over 60 million Nigerians are suffering from various degrees of mental disorder.

Ipaye made this startling revelation in an interview with newsmen in Abeokuta, which is the capital of Ogun state. Going by what the commissioner said almost 80% of people live their lives with one mental disorder without really been aware thus are not seeking help, and then 20-25% live with a well matured exaggerated mental disorder in our country.

According to him, the reasons behind the incidences of mental challenges stem from simple minor mood disorder to severe situations of mental accreditation. He even went as far as adding that out of every five Nigerian, one suffers an extreme mental disorder.

In support of what Ipaye said, a medical consultant at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Dr. Olumuyiwa Odunsote declared the figure of 60 million amounts for about a third of the full number of Nigerians. And adhering by the international standards as well as international definition of mental disorder, this statistics are not far from the truth.

This is eye opening, Nigeria is this congested with mad persons that it is possible to renovate a full stadium into a psychiatric hospital. But with the economic situation of the nation, staying sane is as hard as eating rice to your fill in a Chinese restaurant!