Tackling The Growing Suicide Menace In Nigeria

IT may sound like a fairy tale to observe that, unlike in the past, Nigerians are increasingly committing suicide today. It is sad, but that is the reality in today’s Nigeria. No two months pass without hearing that a Nigerian has committed suicide. The World Health Organisation ( WHO) Suicide Ranking, which has disclosed that there are 15.1 suicides per 100,000 population in a year, places Nigeria as the 30th most suicide- prone country ( out of 183 countries in the world). In Africa, Nigeria is ranked as the 10th African country with higher rates of suicide, leading countries like Togo ( ranked 26th), Sierra Leone ( 11th), Angola ( 19th), Equatorial Guinea ( 7th), Burkina Faso ( 22nd), and Cote d’ivoire ( 5th).

One of the latest in the deluge of suicides occurred on Saturday, March 9, 2024. A woman simply identified as Folashade Nimotalahi, who boarded a boat from Igando in Lagos State to Ogun, jumped into the Lagoon from the moving boat she boarded. Prior to jumping into the Lagoon, she removed the life guard she was wearing. She, however, left behind in the boat her nylon bag containing a bottle of sniper, Alimosho General Hospital cards, and some drugs. It would be recalled that on November 9, 2022, a woman called Adetutu Adedokun, a staff member of the Department of State Services ( DSS), alighted from an Uber taxi car on Lagos Third Mainland bridge and plunged into the Lagos lagoon. The driver of the Uber taxi claimed she was having a heated conversation with her fiancé in the cab before alighting and plunging into the Lagoon. The apparent upsurge in suicide rates and suicidal behaviors is worrisome. The most pathetic aspect is that most Nigerians committing suicide or linked to attempted suicide are young people. The leading method of suicide in 2019 was the use of sniper insecticide but shifted to hanging in 2020 and 2021.

What is happening to Nigerians? Are we losing hope in human existence or what? Between April 8, 2017, and May 12, 2018, a total of 79 Nigerians committed suicide. One of them on March 20, 2017, a 35- year- old medical doctor identified as Allwell Orji parked his beautiful Nissan X- Trail SUV car by the side of the Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos, and jumped into the Lagos Lagoon and died.

From October 2020 to September 2021, no fewer than 51 Nigerians, comprising males and females, committed suicide. In 2020 alone, no fewer than 63 suicide incidents were recorded. In 2021, the total reported cases of suicide in the country stood at 41, while in 2022, a total of about 47 suicide incidents took place across the country. Of this number, 87% were male, while 13% were female.

In Lagos State, the Police Command confirmed the death of a 39- year- old woman, Lillian Nwarache, who took a bottle of insecticide as a result of an overwhelming prolonged illness and died in the Iwaya area of Lagos State. Nwarache was reported to have been suffering from a protracted illness and had been seeking a cure in a church in Iwaya, Lagos. However, she became frustrated with her condition and drank a full bottle of insecticide on November 3, 2023, and died.

One of the dramatic suicides that shocked Nigeria in January 2024 was the suicide committed by a 32- year- old female banker, Amarachi Ugochukwu, who died after consuming an insecticide. Amid banking activities, Amarachi, unknown to her colleagues, casually stole out and entered the female restroom, where she drank the insecticide after leaving a suicide note beside her. In the suicide note, she adduced the reason for taking her own life - she could no longer bear the unending hardship afflicting her.

Given the high rate at which Nigerians now commit suicide, all meaningful, concrete efforts should be made to immediately stem its tide. It is not enough to lament the recurring tragedy. All stakeholders should come together to tackle the problem head- on. Indeed, psychiatrists and other physicians have disclosed that there is a high index of suspicion for signs and symptoms of depression among their patients. They point to medical research which reveals that about 30 per cent of Nigerians are capable of developing thoughts about ending their lives. While some will plan how to kill themselves and actually carry out attempts to do so. The depression and frustration associated with the high suicide rate are oftentimes caused by severe economic hardships, as well as deep personal problems which the victims were unable to resolve.

Therefore, governments at all levels should consciously lessen the hardships and improve living conditions in the country through concrete policies capable of improving the well- being of the people.

The primary function of the government is the satisfaction of basic human needs such as food, electricity supply, drinking water, shelter, hygiene, primary health. Nigerians harboring suicidal thoughts are depressed, paranoid, angry, and melancholic because they cannot eke out a simple living for themselves and their respective families. Specifically, the Tinubu government should focus more on ameliorating the high poverty rate in Nigeria at the moment. Government should show greater initiativesin empowering the people so that they can use their God- given talents to create wealth for themselves. Unless these barriers to creating personal wealth are removed, Nigerians will continue to be entrapped in the vicious circle of poverty.

Without adopting economic policies that foster economic freedom - absence of coercion or constraint through legislation, trade policy, fiscal burden, government intervention, and monetary policy that control people’s production, distribution, consumption of goods and services pattern - a county cannot lift her poor citizens out of poverty. The government should remember that the political enterprise is not an end in itself: it is only a means to achieving the real end which is the well- being of the human person. The primary objective of all types of developments – economic, social, cultural, and political – is to promote authentic sustainable human development. Therefore, the government should do everything possible to improve authentic human development.

One of the greatest challenges in the prevention of suicides today is giving suicide- prone people in need of urgent treatments the help that could save their lives. In this respect, the government should not be the only suicide- interventionist.

Therefore, public- spirited individuals, corporate organisations, tertiary institutions, churches, mosques, NGOS, and others should recruit suicide interventionists, social workers, and therapists to attend to people with suicidal tendencies. This is not only a matter of giving them access to emergency medical clinics but also engaging them in socialization, counseling programmes, and public education which they urgently need.

Civil Society Organisations with core competence in counseling suicidal people should be established in different parts of Nigeria. They should set up suicide crisis centers across Nigeria for suicide treatment, management, and therapy. On their part, people with suicidal tendencies and their families should seek help early enough to prevent suicide tragedy.