For 26 years, suicide has been on a meteoric rise in Nigeria which is reluctant to review criminalizing law
On Friday July 13 2018, residents of Ugborikoko Estate in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta state, southern Nigerian were thrown into mourning when news emerged that Chief Ovie Umukoro, a 58-year old grandfather had committed suicide over his inability to pay a N450,000 debt.
This has become a familiar trend in 2018 which had witnessed reports of suicide involving a Nigerian Army officer, law student, a Nigerian in South Africa, a Nigerian attempting to evade arrest, several undergraduates, 25-year old football fan, and someone at the University College Hospital Ibadan – all within a period of 3 months.
While local media had predicted a surge in the number of suicides occurring in Nigeria, their reports had largely been based on media reports. This is the first presentation of Nigeria’s suicide reports spanning 26 years.
In 1990, suicide and hepatitis claimed about the same number of lives in Nigeria. But 26 years later, the number of Nigerians that committed suicide in 2016 was about twice the number of deaths arising from hepatitis.
According to the Nigerian data available on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database, 3731 Nigerians committed suicide in 1990 but the number rose to 6094 in 2016.
From 1990 to 2016, the number of suicide deaths in Nigeria has risen steadily with the most recent figures being the highest.
This trend is different for hepatitis. While 3805 Nigerians died from the disease in 1990, the number dropped to 3554 in 2016. The lowest figures were recorded in 2014 when 3515 Nigerians died from hepatitis while the highest figures (4569) were recorded in 1998.
For kidney disease, available data showed a fairly steady rise in number of deaths from 2993 in 1990 to 4346 in 2016. These figures are not as high as those of suicide.
One person every 40 seconds
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 800,000 people die annually from suicide, adding that one person dies from suicide every 40 seconds which means many more attempt suicide within the period.
“Suicide occurs throughout the lifespan and is the second leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds globally,” WHO stated.
Describing suicide as a global phenomenon, the global health body noted that 78% of suicides occurred in low- and middle-income countries in 2015. Suicide accounted for 1.4% of all deaths worldwide, making it the 17th leading cause of death in 2015.
“There are indications that for each adult who died of suicide there may have been more than 20 others attempting suicide,” WHO added.
The Nigerian situation
Available showed in Africa, Nigeria has the 13th highest suicide mortality rate (per 100,000 population) while globally, Nigeria has the world’s 30th highest suicide rate.
Nigeria’s economy is the biggest in Africa with nominal GDP of USD376.284 billion. Among the continent’s top 10 economies, Nigeria had the third highest suicide rate in 2016 as the country trails South Africa and Ethiopia which are the continent’s second and eighth largest economies respectively.
The surge in the number of suicide attempts in Nigeria, many experts said, are occluded by poor data gathering in Nigeria particularly enabled by the stigmatization associated with depression and suicide intentions.
When healthnews.africa reviewed news publications on suicide in Nigeria, the results showed consistent reportage focusing on specific cases of suicides and opinion pieces on why suicide is a potential crisis in Nigeria. However, there were no posts archived on Google News in which Nigeria’s health minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole, made any reference to suicide as a mental health crisis in the country.
In 2016, Adewole declared on Twitter that there is more demand for services in Nigeria as the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Yaba area of Lagos recorded 59% rise in new mental health cases in 2016.
In the same year, Dr Olusola Ephraim-Oluwanuga, Chief Consultant Psychiatry at the National Hospital, revealed that there were more people with mental health problems than those living with HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
“Mental health is as important as physical health. But you find that agencies of government and international organisations focus more on catering to the physical needs of the people rather than mental needs,” Oluwanuga said.
Nigeria’s mental health policy
While Nigeria has a mental health policy, Oluwanuga said the policy has not been implemented.
national_policy_for_mental_health_service_delivery
In its form, she said the policy meets global standards.
“This is not a document that needs reviewing because it is in line with global health practices,” she said.
Nigeria’s Association of Psychiatric Nurses of Nigeria also called the attention of stakeholders to mental health in Nigeria, warning that “The world is going through crises and psychological trauma is precipitant to mental breakdown.”
Investigations by healthnews.africa also revealed that while Nigeria has a rapidly evolving suicide crisis, efforts to support suicide victims are being frustrated by existing laws that make suicide to be a crime and suicide victims in the country are being tried under the Nigerian Mental Health Lunacy Code of 1958.
Previous efforts by Association of Psychiatrists of Nigeria to replace the law failed severally.
Why are more Nigerians attempting suicide?
Experts told healthnews.africa that the more important aspect of the data is the trend and not the figures since many cases of suicide are not reported in Nigeria. But the data showing that the number of suicide deaths in Nigeria is steady rising should be a major concern to everyone.
Explaining the science behind suicide, the Coordinator of the Suicide Research and Prevention Initiative at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Dr Raphael Emeka Ogbolu, said life stressors are major factors that cause the neurotransmitters of individuals to drop resulting to depression and feelings of hopelessness which, in turn, compel a person to commit suicide.
“Once an individual begins to have sleep changes, appetite changes, and the person becomes sad and loses interest in things he should naturally be interested in, gets tired easily, has poor concentration, and the way he reasons changes, such a person is close to committing suicide,” he stated.
To address the suicide scourge in Nigeria, experts recommended the decriminalization of suicide to allow victims to seek and access help without fear of victimization.
The criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states inter alia, in Chapter 27, Section 327: “Any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment for one year.”
With this position of the Nigerian law, the country remains one of the few countries where attempted suicide is not regarded as a cry for help and need for intervention. Instead, in the eyes of the law, it is a crime punishable with jail.
In addition to the law, experts also called the creation of support systems and safety nets for individuals with high tendency of committing suicides. This include support groups at schools, provision of support within families and introduction of depression evaluation during regular checkups.
“There is also need for massive public enlightenment because a lot of people around us are depressed without knowing they are depressed,” Ogbolu said.