Denrele Edun talks mental, in pepper soup

By Ijeoma Opara   |  (the Guardian)

Pepper Soup cast

As part of advocacy efforts to raise awareness on health consciousness, substance abuse and addiction arising from eating at random public places, Pinnacle Medical Services productions and Derwin productions has released a short film titled Pepper Soup, which is based on a real life story.

The movie features Denrele Edun in lead character role as celebrity, who got addicted to Pepper Soup that was spiced with some substances that placed him in an unstable mental state. It also, has as cast, Layole Oyatogun, Beverly Osu, Toun Ogundu, and Lisa Omorodion among others.

Speaking at the premiere, executive producer, Dr. Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri said that mental illness is a pertinent issue in the society, which a lot of people ignore because of the stigma associated with it.

She said, “A lot of people believe that mental addiction is gotten from smoking and drinking but then the movie Pepper Soup tells us that when you eat in random places, you could get addicted. This is a real life story of a real Nigerian who doesn’t smoke or drink but he loves pepper soup and didn’t know for any reason that there could be something that will lead him to having mental related problem.”

“When he started acting irrationally, nobody thought it will get to the level where he found himself. So in the process of running tests with blood and urine, substances were found in his system which was afterwards narrowed to the fact that his constant pepper soup intake was be laced with substance,” she added.

According to Dr. Kadiri, no one has immunity when it comes to mental health and that is why it should be taken seriously as research have shown that one out of every four Nigerian will have a mental related problem in lifetime.

“Right now, one out of five Nigerian is depressed, and with 180 million people as population, we have one psychiatrist to one million Nigerians. So, the deficit is huge and people are very easy to judge in this part of the world; we label and stigmatise. This is a wakeup call for all,” she stated.