In Nigeria, attempted suicide — a desperate cry for help or an act of self-immolation is criminalized under Section 327 of the Criminal Code Act and Section 231 of the Penal Code Act, with offenders facing up to one year in prison. Nigeria remains one of the few countries globally where attempted suicide is still treated as a criminal offence. This criminalization exacerbates the stigma associated with mental health, discouraging individuals from seeking the help they need and perpetuating a cycle of silence and neglect. These colonial laws at that time aimed at stopping the act of suicide but could not stop the thoughts! The laws came into existence when there was little understanding of the determinants of suicide and suicidality, when there were no evidence-based suicide prevention interventions and suicide was not considered a preventable condition

Nigeria with a population of over 200 million people, has an estimated 15,000 annual deaths from suicide, or 6.9 per 100,000 as reported by the World Health Organization.  However, where suicide remains a crime, these numbers are likely to be widely under-reported, masking the potential scale of the crisis. Thus, many cases go unreported due to the fear of legal consequences and the pervasive social stigma. Added to this, for every death it is estimated there are at least 20 attempts meaning some 300,000 Nigerians, in suicidal distress, face the agonizing question of asking for help with added threat of the risk of punishment. An average of seven six persons related to someone deceased by suicide suffer mental health and psychosocial sequelae, adding these together about 450,000 Nigerians need support annually, the statistics is quite alarming indeed!

Recognizing the urgent need for change, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare led the crafting of the National Suicide Prevention Strategic Framework which was launched by the Hon. Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Services in November 2023. Among the key objectives of the document is decriminalization of attempted suicide.

LifeLine International (LLI) launched the global campaign to decriminalize suicide in October 2023 and declared its support for three African countries initially (Kenya, Malawi and Nigeria) while collaborating with Africa CDC. In February 2024, Prof. Taiwo Lateef Sheikh, the Africa Continental Lead for LifeLine International convened the Nigeria Suicide Prevention Advocacy Working Group (NSPAWG) to drive suicide prevention awareness, and advocacy, and decriminalization of attempted suicide in Nigeria. The group is multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral in its composition, where there is whole society representation in the membership, with over thirty Civil Society Organizations (CSO) as members as well. The activities of the group were virtual meetings, webinars and workshops with advocacy visits to strategic stakeholders, and members of the were participating in most of the Government organized mental health programs in the country.

The group constituted a committee to draft the National Suicide Prevention and Decriminalization concept bill which was subjected to review at a two-day stakeholder meeting in Abuja in September 2024. In October 2024, the group publicly presented the bill to the Hon. Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Hon. Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Hon. Minister for Youth Development, Distinguished Senator Asuquo Epenyong and other stakeholders at the National Suicide Prevention Conference. The conference was organized by the group and held under the chairmanship of Senator (Dr) Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe and the watchful eyes of the Global Patron of LifeLine International, Mrs. Toyin Saraki.

Keeping to his promise, on Tuesday Tuesday 25^th February 2025, Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong presented the bill to the plenary of the Senate of the Republic of Nigeria for the first reading. This heralds the beginning of a journey for legislative action that will culminate in decriminalization of attempted suicide in Nigeria.

Professor Taiwo Lateef Sheikh

In need of crisis support? Please reach out to the following numbers for immediate assistance:

Nigeria – Asido Foundation:

09028080416, Via calls, SMS, or whatsapp messages and one of our professionals will call you back for free and have a session with you.

Nigeria – SURPIN: