Let Us Talk about Suicide

I want to be serious. My readers always talk about how I can easily combine humour with serious issues, but today I will try to remove humour because there is nothing to laugh about in suicide. Since last week, we have been regaled with the story of a young man who jumped into the lagoon, thereby terminating his life and leaving his parents and the rest of us in a mourning state. His death has now opened the floodgates with different stories of suicide both successful ones and near misses being our lot. People are killing themselves due to the hardship that we face. The economy is killing people and depression is now more than ever before prevalent in our society. To make matters worse, there are no support systems or buffers for those with depression. At the psychiatric hospital, I hear that the major treatment for depression or mental case is to be tied to the bed and given sleeping injections so that you can sleep away your problems. This does not solve the problem because when you wake up, you will have double the problem. Furthermore, the religious institutions who insist on faith healing and other such hocus pocus further compound the problem. We need a national response to mental health issues as it has now reached alarming proportions. We need to revamp our institutions, create buffers and support within the family unit, remove the stigma associated with it so that sufferers can come out easily and seek help. Meanwhile, I send my condolences to the family of this brilliant young man even as I pray for God’s infinite mercy on his soul. Kai.

For the second time, the Senate led by its football-loving President, has rejected the candidature of my friend, Ibrahim Magu. I call him my friend because I was recently in their Ikoyi office and I was treated very well; they even gave me groundnut and boli to eat. So anybody who touches him touches me. Seriously, I really do not care about the reasons why he was refused by the Senate but to look very seriously at the process of the confirmation of the EFCC chairman and come out with resolutions and recommenda-