CRIMINALIZATON OF SUICIDAL ATTEMPTS IN NIGERIA: TO STAY OR TO GO (By Abdulsalam Yunusa)

Photo credit: Unsplash — Nick Fewings

INTRODUCTION 

According to the United States of America’s Center for Disease Control (CDC), suicide is death caused by injuring oneself with the intent to die. [while] A suicide attempt is when someone harms themselves with any intent to end their life, but they do not die as a result of their actions [1].

For a very long time, suicide has been an issue of public health concern in both the developed and developing countries worldwide, causing an alarming number of yearly deaths, which was estimated by the World Health Organization in 2019 to be over 700,000 worldwide [2], with Nigerians 9.5 per every 100,000 of that number according to the WHO’s 2016 Global Health Observatory Data Repository. More disturbing, is that suicide was found to be the fourth commonest cause of death among 15-29 year olds. [2]

Nigeria in the past few years have witnessed an increase in suicides and suicidal attempts; perhaps the case is gaining more publicity due to the rapid rise in social media usage in the country. There have been cases of tertiary institution students drinking insecticides to end their life after several unsuccessful attempts at progressing in their academics and several other scenarios. While this is well known to the public, the mental causes of suicide are not given much attention.

As an effort to deter people from making such a decision of ending their lives, the Nigerian government through its Legislative Arm, came up with a law criminalizing any act directed towards suicide; but will this solve the age long problem? This, we will find out in the essay.

Criminalization of Suicidal Attempts in Nigeria

In Nigeria, just like in several other countries, attempted suicide is a criminal offence punishable by law. This means that people who unsuccessfully tried to kill themselves will be arrested, tried and sometimes even be jailed instead of getting the support they need to try another attempt at living. This unsympathetic law was passed down to Nigeria by its colonial masters and despite having gained independence, the law still stands till date.

This law is evident in Section 327, Chapter 27 Of The Criminal Code —applicable to the southern part of the country, which is as follows:

"Any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment for one year"

A similar law is found in Section 231 Penal Code—applicable to the Northern part of the country.

"Accordingly, anyone who attempts suicide by taking steps towards the commission of the act is liable to an imprisonment term, fine, or both." 

In addition to criminalizing suicide in both the Criminal and Penal Codes, aiding and abetting suicide is also a punishable offence.

While the laws were intended to deter people from killing themselves, it is noteworthy that a person who has made the difficult decision of enduring the pain of suicide by hanging, using deadly weapons, poison ingestion, among others, will not be afraid of a punishment less severe than death itself. Therefore, the primary aim of dissuading people from resulting to the act will not be as effective as expected.

In addition, suicide rates from Nigeria are said to be underreported [3], and this could be attributed to the current law of it being a crime, the widespread stigma and the shortage of personnel and resources allocated to its prevention.

Furthermore, it will interest one to know that a visit to most Nigerian prisons will make it obvious that locking up a person in there for having attempted suicide [4] might inadvertently encourage them to commit suicide during or after their release instead of letting go of the intention.

The stakeholders of Nigeria, a country reported to be the 15th in the world for suicide [5] are expected to take a critical look at the problem, right from the roots, and take into consideration all possible causes so as to find appropriate ways to remedy the it. 

Photo credit: Google

Conclusion

The alarming rate of suicide worldwide is such that needs all hands on deck to ameliorate, and this cannot be done using a stern approach. 

The government and its agencies are to provide more efficient methods as can be found in Europe, America as well as other countries that have decriminalized it, this includes making financial policies that will actively work to reduce poverty in the populace, while at the same time providing accessible and affordable avenues for seeking mental healthcare, providing means to report all forms of abuse and injustice while ensuring that justice is provided and most importantly, reviewing the constitution to decriminalize suicidal attempts and support victims of such acts in all possible ways.

These, instead of the inherited inhumane approach, will go a long way in not just reducing the rates of suicide, but a lot of other problems as well.

I wrote this essay as my entry for the Dec 2021 J.A.M.E Competition organised by The Asido Foundation. I did not make it to the top 15 winners, but I have learnt a lot in the course of writing it. Please leave a comment below if you enjoy reading the article. Thank you — Abdulsalam Yunusa (abdulsalam750@yahoo.com)

References

[1] Suicide Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html) 

[2] Suicide —key facts (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/suicide) 

[3] Nigeria’s suicide rate under-reported, says Dr. Tade (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/08/nigerias-suicide-rate-under-reported-says-dr-tade/)

[4] Locked up for trying to take his own life, in a country where it's a crime to attempt suicide

(https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/30/health/imprisoned-suicide-illegal-nigeria-intl/index.html) 

[5]Nigeria ranked ‘15th in the world’ for suicide - but Lesotho tops African list (https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/reports/nigeria-ranked-15th-world-suicide-lesotho-tops-african-list)