Former NSMQ ‘shark’ now lives in pain due to Bipolar disorder, needs help

In September 2022, JoyNews’ Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen travelled to Jirapa, Upper West Region to meet Ningwie Leonard Lanyeli, who was rumored to be suffering from a mental illness.

But Leonard was nowhere to be found when the team arrived. His mother sat with her two hands on her cheeks, a sad and depressed expression on her face.

Leonard had left the house many hours before, and his mother, Ningwie Gladys, had no idea where he had gone. We needed a search team to find him so we could hear his story and experiences. Leonard had known for months that JoyNews would be visiting to interview him.

Leonard was found about 30 minutes later, and he was overjoyed that the JoyNews team was there to see him. He arrived pumped up and spoke as he’d never spoken before.

“I’m ecstatic. Your presence here is sufficient,” he said after seeing the team.
Leonard expressed his appreciation after a brief discussion on his entire life.

Leonard’s JHS/SHS days

Long before he left senior high school, he was popularly referred to as ‘Dr.’ Ningwie Leonard Lanyeli, due to a childhood ambition to become a medical doctor.

But after senior high school, misfortune and pain dashed this childhood dream, as Leonard dropped out of school.

33-year-old Leonard said – he was born for a greater purpose to impact lives and be a change agent, but his life has been full of pain.

Leonard completed Ganaa Memorial Junior High School where he did excellently well. With an aggregate of 8, he was the best performing student at the school.

“See! I had aggregate 8 in both my junior high and secondary education. I sometimes get disappointed because I have really done it all and nothing came out of it,” Leonard said.

He proceeded to St. Xavier Seminary Senior High School, where he studied General Science.

Leonard was known and addressed as doctor at St Francis Xavier Junior Seminary because of his outspoken aspiration to be a medical doctor.

“Back at St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary, he used to say there must be a ‘Dr’ attached to his name. So we called him ‘Dr’,” one of his senior schoolmates, Emmanuel Belig, now Pharmacist at the Wa regional Medical stores said.