Why Suicide Prevention Matters In Nigeria

Every 40 seconds, determination successful the world, a idiosyncratic takes his oregon her ain life. Behind each fig is simply a communicative of pain, silence, and often, stigma. In Nigeria, a state of implicit 200 cardinal people, the load of intelligence unwellness is immense, an estimated 50 cardinal Nigerians unrecorded with intelligence wellness conditions, yet the bulk endure successful silence.

Despite the alarming figures, intelligence wellness remains 1 of the astir neglected areas of nationalist health. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that much than 75 per cent of Nigerians with mental, neurological, and substance usage disorders person nary treatment. For many, the barriers see taste stigma, deficiency of services, and adjacent the menace of arrest, arsenic attempted termination remains a transgression nether Nigerian law.

The soundlessness astir termination has agelong masked its existent toll. In 2016, the World Bank enactment Nigeria’s termination complaint astatine 9.5 per 100,000 people; by 2018, it had risen to 15 per 100,000. Experts judge the existent numbers are adjacent higher owed to underreporting.

Experts said slump is the azygous strongest precursor to suicide. “About 90 per cent of those who effort termination person intelligence wellness issues, and 80 per cent of these cases are linked to depression,” explained President of the Association of Psychiatrists successful Nigeria, Prof. Taiwo Obindo,

Nigeria’s worsening economical hardship and insecurity person lone compounded the crisis, with galore Nigerians struggling to header with stress, uncertainty, and societal isolation.

Globally, September 10 is marked arsenic World Suicide Prevention Day, a run established successful 2003 to rise consciousness and emphasise that termination is preventable. The triennial taxable for 2024–2026, “Changing the Narrative connected Suicide,” is particularly applicable successful Nigeria, wherever myths and stigma stay strong.

“Changing the communicative requires openness and empathy. Talking astir termination does not summation the risk, it opens pathways to assistance and healing,” said the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).

Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate,

has disclosed plans to decriminalise attempted termination nether the National Suicide Strategic Framework (2023–2030).

The model seeks to regenerate punishment with support, amended entree to intelligence wellness services, and align Nigeria’s attack with planetary champion practices. “Young radical betwixt 15 and 29 are particularly vulnerable, they relationship for 40 percent of each termination deaths successful Africa,” Pate said.

For intelligence wellness professionals, repealing the colonial-era instrumentality that criminalises attempted termination is urgent. Prof. Taiwo Lateef, erstwhile president of the psychiatrists’ association, described the instrumentality arsenic a “major obstruction to help-seeking.”

“When you criminalise attempted suicide, you stigmatise radical who are already vulnerable. According to WHO, Nigeria records astir 16,000 termination deaths annually, and astir victims are young. This is simply a situation that indispensable beryllium urgently addressed,” helium said

WHO estimates that much than 720,000 radical dice by termination globally each year, leaving down devastated families and communities. In Nigeria, prevention efforts stay underfunded, but experts hold that advancement is imaginable if stigma is tackled and attraction becomes accessible.

Practical steps, specified arsenic listening without judgment, checking successful connected friends, and creating harmless spaces for unfastened conversations, tin marque a difference. Self-care practices, including capable sleep, exercise, and accent management, are besides encouraged.

Above all, experts accent the request for compassion.

“Suicide prevention starts with empathy. When radical cognize they are not alone, that idiosyncratic is listening, it tin alteration everything,” said Prof. Obindo.

As the satellite calls for changing the communicative connected suicide, Nigeria faces an urgent choice: to interruption the silence, dismantle stigma, and physique a strategy wherever anticipation is not conscionable a slogan, but a lifeline.