Serial reports recently on attempted and successful suicides are sending shock waves across Nigeria. From Abia, a civil servant with the State ministry of lands and survey, whose name was simply given as Nwankwo, reportedly committed suicide over his inability to fund his wife’s uniforms for women’s day celebration of their church and feed the children. In Kano, a student failed to avoid carry-over exam in one subject and ended it all by taking a pesticide that terminated her life. A 17-year-old boy in Ganjuwa local government area of Bauchi state hung himself over a failed marriage proposal. In Lagos, a frustrated Cameroonian, Frederick Gino, climbed an electric pole to facilitate his electrocution because he was facing financial difficulties. An offer of a million Naira did not sway him. Gino was lucky that there was no electric current before he was eventually rescued by the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority officials. Tunji “Tee Billz” Balogun, husband of songstress Tiwa Savage, attempted suicide on top of the bridge that links Lekki and Ikoyi. All these and many more just within the first quarter this year.
In the recent past, most communities in the country considered taking one’s life or another person’s own a taboo, now the trend is commonplace. What has come upon us? How did we sink this low and what can be done to reverse these eerie tales? Suicides in middle age arising from distress and stress about jobs and personal finances used to be the ‘normal.’ Today, infants, teenagers, youth, octogenarians, women, the middle-class, paupers and even the rich and powerful are contemplating or committing suicide. When we factor the large number of suicide bombers brainwashed and drugged by Boko Haram into the act, Nigeria may be witnessing its worse epidemic of the syndrome ever.
One possible reason for the rising number of suicides and lesser psychological traumas may be the economic and social challenges presently plaguing the nation. Dashed expectations, extreme impoverishment and deteriorating standards of living are traditional triggers of suicide among the working class but we now have far more substantial suicides that are not related to material well-being. We are deeply disturbed by suicide seeping into demographic groups whose suicide rates were hitherto unimaginable. It is sad that Nigerians of all ages and social status now resort to suicide at the slightest impact of economic, social or psychological challenge.
The growing number of religious centres across the country may be another indicator of the obnoxious trend. Unfortunately, religious proliferation has not minimized suicides. Instead, it has moved from the occasional grim glitch to a worrisome occurrence in hamlets, villages, towns and city centres across the country and even among adherents of all religions. From jumping into the lagoon, to hanging self with rope or electric cable, there is virtually no week that suicide is not recorded in one state or the other. There is enormous emotional stress, pervasive poverty and hopelessness everywhere. Dwindling prices of crude oil in the international market, the falling value of the national currency, mental disorders such as schizophrenia, hallucinations, inner voices, delusional thinking and irrational fears and “emotions that seem out of tune with reality”—like the Lagos woman who was hearing a voice telling her to go and jump into the lagoon with her baby. Similarly, excessive alcoholism and drug abuse play significant role in triggering suicidal thoughts.
We call on governments at all levels to pay serious attention to the socio-economic constraints that now trigger and predispose people to violence and suicidal thoughts. Our law enforcement and regulatory agencies like NAFDAC, NDLEA, Police and others should up their game in controlling the use of hard drugs— like Indian hemp, cocaine and even methamphetamines are commonplace across the country—whose immediate adverse effects range from depression to suicide. We need to equip our hospitals and health systems to be better handle the challenge and screen for suicidal thinking and operate good treatment programmes to stem this worrisome tide since it has been proven that if help can reach potential victims early enough, depression, one of the main culprits of suicides is treatable.
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