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The National Assembly passed the National Suicide Prevention Bill 2026 on October 13, 2026. The bill was seeking to decriminalize suicide but it failed. Under section 327 of the Criminal Code and section 327 of the Penal Code, attempted suicide is punishable by imprisonment of up to one year. This is a colonial era legislation, which even Britain, our former colonial master, has decriminalised. Other countries such as Ghana, Malaysia, Guyana, Pakistan, Singapore and India have also decriminalised attempted suicide. They regard attempted suicide not as a criminal matter but as a health and human rights issue. In the entire world, there are only about 20 countries that still treat suicide attempts as a crime. Why should Nigeria belong to this minority group?
Nigeria is not one of the top countries by suicide rate, based on World Health Organisation (WHO) and global health data. The top countries are Lesotho, Greenland, Guyana, Suriname, South Korea, Lithuania, Russia and Uruguay. In Africa, it is countries in Southern Africa that have high suicide rates. Even though suicide cases do occur in Nigeria from time to time, the rate is not high. But it still merits the attention of our lawmakers and other decision makers.
However, continuing to make it a crime is a mistake because public health research as confirmed by WHO shows that criminalisation does not lower suicide rates. Instead, it drives fear, deters survivors and their families from seeking help. It also leads to severe under-reporting of statistics and increases social stigma. It is a bit surprising that our National Assembly has not joined the growing global movement, led by the WHO and human rights, groups calling for suicide to be treated as a health and human rights issue, rather than as a crime. In countries that now treat suicide as a health issue, survivors are no longer arrested or detained but they are, instead, given mental health assessment and treatment. In some countries where there are excellent medical facilities, they are treated as medical and psychiatric emergency cases who deserve and are given free treatment. They are assessed for severe depression, substance abuse disorders or acute trauma. In cases where safety is a major concern, the person involved is recommended for short-term psychiatric hospitalisation. In some countries, crisis telephone helplines are created and limitations are placed on either toxic pesticides or firearms. These measures have considerably reduced the temptation for people to try to take their lives in these countries, no matter the problems that bother them.
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In Nigeria, people seek to commit suicide for several reasons. Some do so due to family or marriage problems or problems at school or at the workplace. Some students who repeatedly fail examinations at school or who fail repeatedly to get admission into school feel that they are a disgrace to their families and, therefore, choose to end it all. Some fellows who have educational qualifications that ought to fetch them employment but have remained unemployed because jobs are scarce or because they do not know where to find the jobs. Some girls who are jilted by their lovers or have been repeatedly denied marital opportunities also think that the society considers them to be useless. They choose, out of weakness, to take their lives. In Nigeria, persons who want to take their lives adopt different methods. Some of them swallow acidic, toxic substances, which guarantee quick results. Some take the tough route and hang themselves with a rope. Others jump from a multi-storey building while others simply jump into the Atlantic Ocean and get drowned. The methods are many but none of them is edifying. Suicide attempt is a product of extreme frustration; a point that a human being decides that he cannot improve his life, his status and his station in life due to no fault of his. At this point, he no longer believes in hope, that driving force that keeps people going, that suggests that tomorrow might be better for him than today and that there is a silver lining on the horizon. He feels that he has reached a point of no return, a dead end, the end of the road. He feels, at this point, that since his prayers have not been answered he has no choice but to go away. All human beings always pray for long life. During birthday celebrations, people thank God for adding one more year to their lives. They also ask for an elongation of their lives. These are routine requests that most people make to God because they think that living long is good. It gives them the opportunity to continue to bond with their loved ones and enjoy life’s abundant pleasures. Suicide is a gross negation of these objectives, these positivities that most people look forward to in life from day to day.
Suicide cases can be considerably reduced if the living conditions of Nigerians are considerably improved in the areas of housing, health, education, water and economic support by the various governance groups and foundations. Where there is a crisis, as there often are in many parts of Nigeria, there must be ready and immediate help, mobile crises teams, peer support groups and crises phone numbers to call. Humanitarian support at this point must be immediate for people who are in acute distress so that they can receive early stabilisation and remediation. In Nigeria, people, especially in villages, live together, eat together, work together and know each other intimately. The fellowship and conviviality that exists among them is a strong bond that can ensure that neighbours who need help can be helped. Families, friends and communities are tied together by a cobweb of affectionate relationships. That is why, in many rural communities, what happens to one person is treated as a community event, an event that is to be tackled by one and all in the community. But even in towns, there are peer groups, school mates and alumni associations that care for their peers and often respond speedily to their urgent needs. We must build on these groups that offer affection so that the problems, acute problems, of their peers can be identified easily without their peers resorting to suicide attempts.
But more importantly our ,decision makers at the three levels of government must realise that Nigeria has signed several conventions at the global and continental levels that protect human rights and dignity. In this day and age, we must rise above the limitations of silly customs, culture, tradition, religion and ethnicity and move Nigeria into modernity. We must protect, through legislation and governance, the human dignity of our people and not subject them, under any guise, to cruel inhuman and degrading treatment.
On the issue of suicide, we ought to show mercy, not mercilessness, to those who attempt but fail to take their lives. Life is very precious and those who try to take it deserve to be sympathised with, not to be scorned and scolded through imprisonment.
