Babatunde is a 58-year-old retired civil servant in Ilorin. He had been told at a routine medical check two years before his stroke that his blood pressure was dangerously high. He was given a prescription he couldn’t afford. He felt well and could not ‘feel’ his high blood pressure. He reasoned that if something were seriously wrong, his body would tell him. His body eventually told him on a Tuesday morning when he woke with a severe headache, found that his right arm would not cooperate, and tried to call for his wife but found that the words came out in the wrong order. He was rushed to the hospital for urgent care. He was experiencing a stroke due to his uncontrolled high blood pressure.

Emeka is a 10-year-old student in Umuahia. Six months ago, he began experiencing what his teachers described as strange behaviour such as periods of staring blankly during class, occasional falls, and one frightening episode in which he briefly lost consciousness. His parents were called to the school. One teacher said the child was not right in his head. Another quietly told the parents to pray about it. His parents prayed. They also took him to a traditional healer and then to a church. It was six months before a neighbour who worked as a nurse suggested they take him to the state hospital. The pediatrician recognized his symptoms as consistent with childhood epilepsy. With appropriate anticonvulsant medication, his seizures have been well controlled for two months. He has now returned to school.

Aminu was an undergraduate at Bayero University, Kano (BUK) when he had his first episode of acute psychosis. He heard voices telling him that people were watching him and planning to harm him. He became very worried and suspicious of everyone. He suspected his phone was being used to track him, so he threw it away. He started locking his windows and eventually his door and stopped attending class or going out…even to buy food. He genuinely feared that he was in danger and refused to respond to knocks on his door. His family and friends became worried and eventually broke the door to his room, where they found him hiding under the bed and was irrational. He was taken to the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) where he was diagnosed with acute psychosis. He was placed on medications and within a month was much better and back in school.

Discussion

Every 22 July, the world observes World Brain Day. This year, the campaign is led by the World Federation of Neurology under the theme Brain Health: Access for All. The theme addresses a critical problem. More than 40 per cent of the global population currently lives with neurological conditions, making brain disorders the leading cause of disability worldwide. Nearly 80% of the neurological disease burden falls on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like Nigeria. We therefore have to face this burden squarely.

The World Brain Day 2026 campaign is built on five key messages: Brain Health Is for Everyone — equity in care; Earlier Access Changes Lives — prioritizing early intervention; Prevention Starts in Everyday Life — reducing risk factors; Bring Brain Care Closer to Home — community-based support; and Awareness Must Lead to Action — measurable impact.

For the realization of brain health for all, we must work together to facilitate access, reduce stigma, and build the systems that people need. We must also appreciate the overlap between neurological problems and mental health – all of which affect the same organ: the brain.

Strategies to Promote Brain Health Access

Investing in neurological/mental health workforce development: Training more neurologists/mental health professionals is important, but equally critical is building the capacity of primary care physicians and community health workers to identify and manage these conditions, and to initiate timely referrals when needed.

Integrating brain health into primary care: Blood pressure monitoring, diabetes management, and basic neurological screening should be routine features of every primary health care interaction in Nigeria.

Making medication consistently available and affordable: Many common neurological conditions are manageable with inexpensive generic medications that remain inconsistently stocked across the country. The National Health Insurance Agency must also expand enrollment and coverage for these conditions.

Reducing stigma through sustained public education: Cultural misunderstanding remains a significant barrier to timely care for conditions like dementia, epilepsy, mental disorders and stroke.

Peer-to-peer and community advocacy: We should support people living with neurological conditions and their families to become advocates within their own communities. Lived experience, shared honestly and without shame, reaches places that clinical messaging does not.

Awareness must lead to action: The fifth pillar of the campaign makes it clear that awareness must lead to measurable global impact, and all stakeholders must be committed to this goal.

The brain is the instrument through which every human being navigates their existence, and we must take care of it.