Suicide has been a major source of mortality worldwide. It is estimated that one million people die from suicides annually. In Nigeria and across Africa and Nigeria, there has been a silent and rising epidemic of suicide among students and other cross sections of youths. A World Health Organization (WHO) estimate, places the suicide rate for Nigeria at 17.3 per 100,000 population as against a global average of 10.3 per 100,000 population. A study published in General Psychiatry in 2021 that assessed over 350 Nigerian newspaper suicide reports from the previous 10 years found that 50% of the cases of suicide were below the age of 34, signifying an early loss of productive lives. According to the WHO, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people between the ages of 15 and 44 years, and the second for adolescents between ages 15 and 19 years.
Suicide is severely under-reported and under-documented in Nigeria. This is due to lack of public investment in a comprehensive data collation system, and the sensitive nature of the subject. The high level of stigma, as well as negative cultural and religious sentiments associated with suicide in Nigeria equally contribute to the dearth of data. Deaths by suicide are perceived as sinful taboos that are caused by evil spiritual forces, so the families of people who died by suicides are often times stigmatized and denied social opportunities. To avoid this, they tend to declare such deaths of their loved ones as accidental or homicides, when they can. Many of the reported cases rely on police and hospital records, neither of which are comprehensive and might have been influenced by the bereaved. In addition, suicide attempt are still crimes in Nigeria according to section 327 of the country’s criminal code. This makes people less inclined to seek help.
In a previous article, we looked at the recent and tragic case of the 200 level Unilorin student who died by suicide because of the economic hardship he was facing. Like his case and others mentioned in the article, hopelessness from financial difficulties and lack of access to mental healthcare are some of the leading causes of suicide in Nigeria and other developing countries. A review published by the University College Hospital, (UCH) Ibadan classified risk factors leading to suicide into Individual: Mental Illness, Addiction, Isolation, trauma, acute emotional distress etc; Socio-Cultural: stigmatization of health-seeking behavior, lack of access to healthcare, exposure to suicidal behavior. etc; Situational: Economic hardship or financial difficulties, social losses or breakdown of significant emotional relationship and other stressful life events.
One can deduce how economic hardship and lack of access to requisite healthcare are central in any risk factor analysis as they are usually upstream in the development of most of these risk factors leading to suicidal behavior. This is especially so for students and youth given the high levels of youth unemployment, poverty and the combined stress of trying to secure unaffordable education.
A downstream of lack of concerted government investment to mitigate suicides is the prevalence of harmful suicide reporting practice in the Nigerian media ecosystem. A report published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry in May 2023 that evaluated over 205 suicide related stories from the news portals of 10 top Nigerian newspapers found that while 79% provided details on the suicide methods employed and 66% offered mono-causal explanation to the suicide case, less than 4% of the stories traced warning signs, reported mental health experts’ opinions, featured research findings, and provided details on the identity or contacts of available suicide prevention programs and support services. This pattern of irresponsible suicide reporting is dangerous because vulnerable groups are negatively affected by improper exposure to suicidal behavior. This gives rise to the phenomenon termed by experts as copycat behavior. A situation where people are influenced by the suicidal behavior of others to do the same.
Copycat behavior among vulnerable groups has been linked with repeating suicide reports, identifying and explicitly explaining dramatic lethal suicide method, placing suicide stories prominently in the media, making suicide look inevitable, glamorising or sensationalising suicide stories and the extent to which the reader can identify with the reported suicide victim. Government efforts should be focused on implementing and enforcing responsible rules and guidelines for health reporting and blogging.
In recent years, the Federal Government has sought to address the problem of rising rate of suicide in Nigeria by introducing different measures. Policy programs such as the promise made in September 2024 by the government to decriminalize suicide, introduction of the National Suicide Prevention Strategic Framework (NSPSF 2023-2030), and the National Mental Health Technical Working Group are some of these measures. According to the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, these policy documents are supposed to “institute cost-effective programmes, health and socio-economic interventions that change behavior and lifestyle, and address the population at large as well as vulnerable groups.” However, piecemeal policies cannot fundamentally address systemic unemployment and poverty, lack of healthcare infrastructure and a capitalist neoliberal society that discourages community and promotes individualism and isolation. Also the government is yet to fully implement the decriminalisation of suicide attempts since September last year.
On one hand, this administration has paid lip service to tackling the problem, on the other it has intensified with implementing its neoliberal agenda, including austerity measures, plunging the poor working people into deeper poverty in the process. The government has pushed through anti-poor policies such as the removal of fuel subsidies, increasing tariffs on just about every public good and service, and the weakening the purchasing power of the naira. This has intensified economic hardship and reduced access to healthcare which are central risk factors in inducing suicidal behavior.
It falls on the Nigerian working class along with youth and student movements to deliver for themselves a society that fosters community and isn’t bound by the profit motive. A society that will give hope to just about everyone that life is worth living. Such a society, best shaped as socialist society, is thus worth fighting for.
by Emmanuel EDOMWONYI
