Uba Sani sets global standards with Kaduna mental health model

Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has set a new benchmark in public health reform with the establishment of the internationally recognised Kaduna Model—a comprehensive, compassionate, and rights-based framework for addressing mental health and substance abuse.

The Director General of the Kaduna State Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (KADSAMHSA), Dr. Joseph Ike, made this known on Wednesday during a press briefing to mark the 2025 World Mental Health Day.

According to Dr. Ike, Governor Sani has transformed Kaduna’s approach to mental health and substance abuse from a punitive and fragmented system into a proactive and integrated public health model, formally recognised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

He explained that one of the most revolutionary aspects of the Kaduna Model is the Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) programme—the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa—designed in partnership with the UNODC.

The initiative diverts individuals who commit minor, non-violent offenses linked to substance use from the criminal justice system into mandatory treatment and rehabilitation.

Dr. Ike described the approach as both compassionate and pragmatic, adding that it “addresses the root cause of criminal behaviour and breaks the cycle of addiction and incarceration.”

Dr. Ike further highlighted that Governor Uba Sani has repealed the colonial-era Lunacy Act of 1954 and signed into law the Kaduna State Mental Health Bill, ushering in a modern, rights-based era that recognises mental health as a fundamental human right. Under this reform, the state adopted the World Health Organization’s Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP), integrating mental health into general healthcare.

The inaugural training cohort equipped 100 frontline health workers—doctors, nurses, and pharmacists from 10 general hospitals—with the skills to diagnose and manage common mental health conditions.

To improve accessibility, the administration has also established 20 community-based Drop-In Centres within existing Primary Health Care facilities across the state.

All services at these centres are provided free of charge, enabling more than 20,000 clients to receive care within the first year. Additionally, the first Community-Based Treatment and Recovery Centre, commissioned in May 2024, has already provided intensive rehabilitation to 116 individuals, with three more centres underway to expand treatment capacity.

Dr. Ike said the Kaduna Model also prioritises prevention, particularly among young people, through the Kaduna Children Amplified Prevention System (Kd-CHAMPS).

The programme, developed from a UNODC framework, provides resilience-building interventions for children and adolescents—both in and out of school—with the goal that every child under 18 will have access to at least two evidence-based prevention programmes.

He added that through a partnership with the Ministry of Education and MTN Foundation, the Unplugged school-based drug prevention programme has trained over 200 teachers and reached more than 17,000 students with life-skills education to help them resist peer pressure and make healthy lifestyle choices.

In another milestone, Kaduna became the first location in Africa to implement the UNODC’s LULU sports-based programme on a large scale, training 32 community-based coaches and engaging 960 at-risk adolescents in its pilot phase.

Dr. Ike noted that Kaduna State’s leadership in this area has been formally recognised by the UNODC, cementing its position as a national and continental trailblazer in mental health and substance abuse reform.

To further consolidate this leadership, Kaduna is set to host the first-ever North West Governors Forum on Drug Abuse and Security in