THE first time I read that a young man was arrested and detained because he tried to kill himself, I was shocked. It was my first rude awakening to the fact that suicide and its attempt is a criminal offence in Nigeria. Since we know that the law has no holding on the dead, on this week’s edition of WhatsApp Conversation, we focus on the living.
Should suicide attempts be criminalized in the country? Here are respondents opinions:
Lanre Oseni
Suicide and its attempts are criminal. While some types could be pitiable if notes written are read others might not even if notes are written or not. Whichever way, it goes beyond reason “why an individual would want to kill himself” and in such cases, suicide could be tagged, criminal. Many adduce reasons for suicide from literature read, from hearsays. Such reasons could be hopelessness, depressing, wrong allegations/accusations, unemployment, enslavement etc. Whichever, however, coaching, mentoring, counselling among others could prevent suicide. Suicide in all is criminal!
Lawal Atilola
Suicide has become more notorious in recent years and is now reported regularly in the news. There is greater awareness of the challenge of suicide and attempted suicide, partly as a result of an increase in social media use. Attempting suicide is a criminal offence under Nigeria’s criminal laws. This law is currently enforced in several states in Nigeria. A legacy of old law from the era of British colonisation, several other African countries have provisions in their criminal legislation criminalising suicide attempts. I argue that this should not be the case. Suicide attempts should not be criminalised, if anything, it should be studied for proper understanding and prevention.
Yosola Franklin
On a national level, I’d say it’s mainly due to the nature of compromise, and that very few ever advocate for suicide to be legal, so it makes sense to the government to maintain its illegality.
On a personal level, a lot of people’s personal philosophies won’t allow for such an action. It may be ‘wrong’, ‘sinful’, or ‘selfish’ to them, and to these people, life is seen as invaluable, something that can never be relinquished.
My personal belief on the subject is that suicide can be a rational action in many cases, and although I wouldn’t suggest people go and kill themselves, I find it far more abhorrent that people would rather encourage suffering, especially in cases where all they’re doing to try to force their worldview upon others.
Kemi Ogunleye
You know how everyone gets upset when you’re playing a game and someone is losing really badly, and instead of playing the game to the bitter end, he just stops playing? Suicide is quitting life in the same way. People really, really don’t like that.
My guess as to that is that, it’s something along the lines of suspension of disbelief. While we’re playing the game, we’re all pretending that it’s important, and by quitting, the quitter is implicitly saying that the game is actually meaningless. And people don’t like facing that, because it means that they’re working hard for nothing. Suicide is claiming that life is meaningless in the same way. And, similarly to the game, people don’t like facing that possibility. Criminalising suicide is to implicily force people to keep going through whatever it is they are going through in their lives.
Nafiz Garba
Suicide is an option some take when pain exceeds the resources for dealing with pain. People in that much pain cannot possibly be thinking rationally. People that cannot make rational decisions lose their self-agency. We do this all the time: children, coma patients, those living with dementia. An agent is assigned (a parent, guardian, spouse, etc) that looks after the best interests of the represented party.
Therefore, a suicidal person loses his freedom to make decisions regarding their own life for their own protection. This is what partially allows us to ‘commit’ other people.
The issue is somewhat tackled when it comes to end-of-life, unconscious care. Do we keep them on life support? Do we pull the plug? Usually, these decisions are made either before the incident (in a will) or by their agent.
Now, if assisted suicide is legal, why should unassisted suicide be?
Tosin Awoniyi
No, a suicide attempt should not be criminalised because If someone makes an attempt or tries to commit suicide, that means that particular person is going through some emotional trauma then that he/she can’t disclose with anybody. So If the government now tries to take it up (criminalising suicide) that means there would be a lot of innocent souls (i.e. those that try to commit suicide but haven’t done so) in the police custody. So to draw my conclusion, I think the government should create a national strategy, stating a clear commitment to suicide prevention and ensuring that there is collaboration between multiple stakeholders and sectors.
Next week, let’s talk privilege. What do people have that they don’t realize that it’s a privilege? To be part of the next edition, send your response to 08136601345 via WhatsApp or SIMS.
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