• Tales of Nigerians killing themselves
By Henry Umahi and Sunday Ani
Tragedy was averted in Lagos on May 17, 2016 when operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) prevented a woman, Mrs. Adegoke, from jumping off the Third Mainland Bridge with her one-year old daughter, in a bid to commit suicide. It was gathered that her suicide mission was aborted when a taxi driver called the attention of the RRS on duty in the area.
The 27- year-old woman told the police that she was responding to a voice, which ordered her to go to the lagoon and jump inside. She trekked from her family house at Medina Estate in Gbagada to Third Mainland Bridge. “Immediately I heard the voice, I hearkened to the call because it was coming repeatedly from the person calling me,” she said. It was gathered that she was having issues with her husband.
Weeks earlier, RRS operatives also rescued Lanre, a 17-year-old sickle cell patient, from jumping into the lagoon from the Third Mainland Bridge. A mechanic had notified RRS operatives on patrol in the area that a teenager was standing on the bridge, looking intently into the lagoon. After being rescued, Lanre disclosed that he was frustrated, hence he took the decision to end his life. The cause of his frustration was that he lost a phone and N6,000 to some street urchins on Lagos Island.
But in the case of 17-year-old Usman Abdu, who hailed from Ganja ward in Ganjuwa Local Government Area of Bauchi State, his suicide bid was successful. He took his own life over his failed marriage proposal to his 12-year old cousin. He was found dangling on a tree on May 13, 2016. In a statement, the State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Haruna Mohammed, said: “Preliminary investigation revealed that the victim hanged himself when his cousin, a 12-year-old girl of the same address rejected his marriage proposal. Exhibit recovered include rope, which the victim used in hanging himself while the corpse has been released to his relatives for burial after postmortem examinations.”
Similarly, Chiamaka, a 19-year old lady, took her life in her residence at No. 17 Nwike Street, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State. It was learnt that she took the easy way out when her boyfriend denied responsibility for her pregnancy. A source said: “Chiamaka was not happy that her boyfriend denied her in her trying moment because her parents threatened to sanction her for being pregnant. The parents were very angry about it. They quarreled with her because of the pregnancy and she thought the best thing to do was to go to her boyfriend, at least to have rest of mind. But she was disappointed that the boy denied her and I think this might be the reason she hanged herself.”
Death wish
Indeed, the suicide rate in the country is on the rise. Although there is no statistics to show the number of victims, suicide reports are recorded all the time. Not long ago, Nigerians were regarded as the happiest people on earth. But not anymore; Nigerians are so sad that they are now killing themselves. Even those who appear to be rich and happy are also involved.
Pop music star, Tiwa Savage, said in a recent interview that her husband romanced with suicide but was rescued by associates.
Global issue
Suicide is a global challenge, especially with regards to young people. This month, two 19-year-old Indian ladies, Asha Shrikant and Swati Zanje, were found by police hanging from a tree in the jungle. They were said to have committed suicide because they were married off against their wishes.
A report said: “Suicides among young people continue to be a serious problem. Each year in the U,S, thousands of teenagers commit suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds, and the sixth leading cause of deaths for five to 14 year olds.” It was also learnt that “men are four times more likely to die by suicide than women.” Most of the suicides involving young men are as a result of heartbreak. In other words, men love their women to the extent that they cannot live without them. The types of suicide include copycat suicide, para-suicide and murder-suicide.
Why they do it
According to Pastor Royalpriest, “there are a lot of reasons people commit suicide. Some times people get frustrated with things happening within and around them, which they think they cannot change. It could be their family, social or health status. They allow such circumstance to overwhelm them and suggest that they are not worth living with such impediments. They eventually fall prey to such negative suggestion within them and take their life.”
He further said: “The use of hard drugs influences and affects lives negatively. Hard drugs contain substances that when inhaled or injected in the system turns the brain up side down. It could make a gun look like a toy. It makes an ocean look like a swimming pool. It could make poisonous substance look like good drink or food. There are different teachings and indoctrination. Most times, what you hear and see affect one’s life either positively or negatively. For instance, the suicide bombers started by allowing themselves to be indoctrinated until they had no value for their lives.”
Pastor Royalpriest added: “Spiritual manipulation could also be one the causes of suicide. The truth is that the spiritual controls the physical. Some times, some demonic spirit projected could cause one to harm himself or herself. That’s why sometimes you could see someone fighting with nobody at sight.”
Maintaining that the consequences cannot be over emphasised, he said: “They leave their family in pain and agony. In a family where the individual is the only son or daughter on whom the parents had invested heavily, it might be too much for such parents to bear. And it cab eventually lead to their untimely death. It also stigmatizes the family forever or for a very long time. The Africa society sees suicide as an abomination. In some cases, the family concerned will be mandated to appease the gods through sacrifices.”
Psychology theory
Offering insightful perspectives into factors that could lead to suicide, Consultant Psychologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Dr. Leonard Okonkwo said there are many factors but depression is the major one.
He explained that man naturally is driven by a principle that makes him to seek pleasure and avoid pain. According to him, “when man begins to seek the opposite, like seeking death, then it is abnormal. And that is to say that suicide is an act deliberately carried out by an individual to take his or her own life. It is not an accident but a deliberate act by the individual to terminate own life, which runs contrary to what man is driven by; that is the love of pleasure and avoidance of pain. So, it is abnormal.
“The most characteristics feature that you find in suicide is a sense of hopelessness and an intense psychological pain that one experiences and he feels that the only way out of that pain is death. He kills himself, as nobody will do it for him because somebody doing it for him will amount to a crime.”
Okonkwo added: “When you are feeling a sense of guilt, it means that for instance, you are blaming yourself for not doing what you are supposed to, which is why certain things have happened the wrong way. And, because you have failed to do what you are supposed to do and certain things have happened the wrong way, you are regretting your action. So, that personal guilt will culminate into a vengeance towards self for being the cause of a particular situation. Then, there will be an anger to kill, which is done towards oneself. In a nutshell, suicide involves a desire to kill, a desire to die and a desire to be killed. The three are interwoven in the person leading to suicide.”
He also tried to distinguish between a suicide and a deliberate self-harm, which according to him, could lead to suicide. He said: “There is a difference between a suicide and a deliberate self-harm. In suicide, the three dimensions are there but in deliberate self-harm, the person involved does not really want to die; he only wants to draw attention to himself. So, he deliberately harms himself to draw attention.”
Although, he believes depression is the major cause of suicide, mental illnesses also come into play. For instance, someone who is experiencing physical pain as a result of illness may feel tired of the illness and wants to commit suicide. He may desire euthanasia (mercy killing), but where nobody is ready to offer that assistance, the person just takes overdose of drugs and kills himself. People can also commit suicide when they have a failed relationship, which is also a case of depression resulting in hopelessness. When people are isolated or ostracised in a community, they also tend to commit suicide.” he said.
Throwing more lights on depression, Okonkwo said: “Before one commits suicide, there must be a sense of psychological pain and hopelessness, which are the major elements of severe depression. Most people who commit suicide are suffering from depression but depression is not the only reason people commit suicide. We also know that people may be motivated as a result of mental illness, which is also a kind of depression. But, there are mental illnesses that are not depression. For instance, when a person is hearing a voice like in the case of schizophrenia, it is not the same as depression because one of the major things you find in schizophrenia is not being in touch with reality. The person is hearing a voice, saying ‘kill yourself; kill yourself,’ which usually is a command and he obeys the voice and kills himself. It is a mental illness and the end result is suicide. The person commits suicide not necessarily because he is depressed but because he is responding to a voice telling him to kill himself.”
Some suicide may also be politically motivated. On the political suicide, he said: “When you want to protest a government policy for instance, you could kill yourself to register your displeasure towards the policy. Some people who indulge in hunger strike could actually die as a result of it. Some other people actually kill themselves to draw attention. Even some of the Boko Haram suicide bombers are all part of political suicide.”
He also cited religion as a strong factor that could lead to suicide. Using the Guyana Tragedy and Boko Haram Islamist sect as examples, he said: “Religion is another reason people commit suicide, especially when they are given command by their leaders to do so. For instance, the Guyana Tragedy, which happened when Jim Jones led his congregation of about 900 people to commit suicide, is a good example of religious suicide. Okonkwo also believes that suicide has a link with gene. Consider what he said: “It is also known that suicide may be more common in some tribes or there may be some biological link. But that link may also be associated with mental illness because mental illness also has biological or genetic link. ”
He also looked at the role of urbanisation in suicide. He believes that the western life styles occasioned by urbanisation has broken down the traditional social support, thereby leaving the frustrated with no choice than to commit suicide especially when the individual concerned does not want to go into crime.
Explaining further, he said: “Urbanisation increases the level of breakdown of family structure of social support. The structures are no longer there. When one is passing through a lot of frustrations, such no job, no food, no money to buy drugs, no accommodation among others, and there is nobody to help out, it could lead to depression and then hopelessness, which paves the way for suicide. So, it is whole lot of issues that are responsible for suicide in our society today.”
On whether cases of suicide are on the increase, it is very possible considering the whole lot of stress in the environment today but insisted that he does not have the statistics to say so. He said there might not be an increase in the cases of suicide but probably the increase in the reportage of such cases makes it appear as if there is an increase. “I have no statistics to prove that suicide is on the increase but there are more cases of that being reported nowadays. When cases are being more reported, it looks like they are on the increase. However, there may not be an increase; it is just that the cases are now being reported more than before but I can’t say whether there is really an increase or not,” he submitted.
Proffering solution on the way out of the problem, the clinical psychologist insisted that apart from addressing the causes of suicide as he has enumerated, there is also the need for what he calls cognitive restructuring as a way of curbing the menace of suicide.
He said: “If you want to address suicide, you need to address its causes. Like I said, it is about depression, hopelessness and helplessness.
Why do people feel hopeless or helpless? One, it can be as a result of a mental illness. So, if somebody is feeling hopeless and helpless because he is depressed, then that depression must be addressed.
“Secondly, one way to deal with hopelessness or helplessness is what we call cognitive restructuring; helping the person to reorganise his thinking process. So, the fact that something happens does not mean the end of one’s life. The person should be made to understand that if destruction can happen in one day, promotion might also happen in one day.”
What the Bible says
The General Overseer of Royal Choice Ministries, Ketu-Lagos, Dr. Success Ibeakanma said that suicide is a grave sin in every material particular. His words: “Suicide is a grave sin equivalent to murder because anyone that commits suicide automatically misses heaven. Some of the scriptures that speaks about suicide include: 1 Chron. 10: 4,5; Exodus 20: 13; 21: 23; Matt. 27: 5; Acts 1: 18, 19; 1 Sam. 31: 4 – 6, 17; 2 Sam. 17: 23; Judges 16: 26 – 27; Acts 16: 27; 1 Kings 16:18.
Position of Islam
Offering Islamic perspective on the issue, Alhaji Aliyu Abdulhameed said: “Life is of God and sacred, thus taking it is strictly forbidden in Islam (Quran 2:195 and Quran 4:29). Suicide and martyrdom are conceptually different, though the readiness to lose one’s life is common to both. Suicide is deliberately taking one’s own life due frustration, depression, hopelessness, shame etc. On the contrast, martyrdom is losing one’s life in self-defence of one’s family or country, fight for justice, freedom and peace. In Islam, suicide is absolutely condemned while martyrdom is praised and greatly rewarding. (Quran 3:169).”
Abdulhameed further said: “Taking an innocent life (including one’s life) is one of the great sins (Quran 5:32). Paradise will be forbidden for him to enter. The recompense of suicide is hell among other punishments (Quran 4:93). Such person will be eternally subjected to the same pain and agony by which he/she committed suicide.”
He added: “Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet (S.A.W) said: ‘Whoever throws himself off a mountain and kills himself will be in Hell throwing himself down into it perpetually in such a state therein. Whoever drinks poison and kills himself with it will have in his hand poison and drinking it in the Hell-fire perpetually in such a state therein. Whoever kills himself with an iron weapon will have the weapon in his hand stabbing his abdomen in the Hell-fire perpetually in such a state therein.’ Recorded by Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawood.
”Jundub ibn Abdullah said that the Messenger of Allah (S.A.W) said, ‘Among the people before you there was a man who was injured. He suffered from the pain and therefore took a knife and cut his hand with it, bleeding to death. Allah said, ‘My servant has hurried his soul to Me so I shall forbid for him Paradise.’ ” Recorded by Bukhari and Muslim.”