The latest World Happiness Report ranked Nigeria as the 102nd happiest country in the world out of 143 countries surveyed. Despite being home to the happiest people in Africa, Nigeria is witnessing an upsurge in suicide cases, with young people being the worst hit, FELICITAS OFFORJAMAH reports.
On Monday, January 8, 2024, the mobile phone of a female marketing staff of a new generation bank in Lagos State, Amarachi Ugochukwu, rang endlessly and unattended to on her table.
The development prompted colleagues to search for the 33-year-old within the facility located in the Ikorodu area of the state.
According to the bank manager, who reported the matter to the police the same day said: “One of the toilets was forced open after it was found to have been locked from within. Her (Ugochukwu’s) lifeless body was found on the floor, alongside a bottle of an insecticide.”
The manager added: “Also found beside her was a suicide note, where she lamented how bad her life had been. A doctor was called in, and she was confirmed dead. Police detectives arrived at the scene and moved the corpse to the Ikorodu General Hospital where an autopsy is expected to be carried out on her remains.”
Ugochukwu’s heart-rending suicide note read: “Nothing is working in my life. My figures are low. My brain is clogged up. The economy is getting harder. My decisions are wrong. My mind is messed up. The future doesn’t seem bright at all. I see extreme hardship. I can’t bear the pain anymore. I am sorry Mum, I am sorry Dad. I am sorry Nene, Okwe, Nazor, Chuchu, Ifunanya. Dear Lord, have mercy on me.”
On Thursday, June 1, 2024, at Kanshio Community, a suburb of Makurdi, the Benue State capital, many thought that it was a joke when one Terhide Garfa, threatened to kill himself, if he could not speak to his mother.
While residents were still trying to grapple with the reality of the threat, Garfa, who was in his early 20s, scaled through a fence, hugged an electricity transformer, and died instantly.
An eyewitness, who simply gave his name as Nick, said the deceased’s remains were found at about 3:45 p.m. inside a transformer enclosure.
Nick, a resident of the area, said it remains a mystery how the late Garfa entered the fenced transformer enclosure.
He said: “Someone said he heard the deceased saying that he wanted to speak with his mother or he would kill himself. But the person did not know if he was able to speak with his mother, or not. But the next thing that people saw was his lifeless body lying the transformer,” the witness stated.
Garfa’s case is consistent with the new wave of suicide among youths in the country.
Suicide is a highly complex phenomenon that has dire consequences on families, communities, and countries. Although it may be difficult to comprehend why someone would want to take his/her life, suicide is among one of the leading causes of death worldwide.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed that more than 700, 000 people die as a result of suicide every year. It also revealed that it is the fourth leading cause of death among 15 to 29-year-olds.
People of different ages commit suicide. However, the rates are higher amongst vulnerable groups, who experience mental health disorders, particularly depression.
Although experts, including caregivers, institutions, and concerned stakeholders and personnel have attempted to adduce various reasons for this, there seems to be no concluding line yet.
According to them, people who are commonly discriminated against; those who experience conflict, disaster, violence, abuse, or loss and a sense of isolation may attempt suicide.
Another disturbing trend is that some of these suicides take place within academic circles, as was the case of Chukwuemeka Akachi, a 400-Level student of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), who took his life after leaving behind a suicide note on his Facebook wall.
Recently, a final year student of the Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, identified as Favour Ugwuka, allegedly committed suicide in her hostel, at the Ishieke Campus of the university, in Abakaliki, the state capital.
Investigations revealed that the student, who was in the Department of English passed all her courses, but repeatedly failed a particular course, whose lecturer had allegedly vowed that she would never pass, leading to her suicide.
Similarly, a 400-Level student at Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, Rashidat Shittu, also committed suicide over her poor academic status.
Currently undergoing her mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, Amanda Obiageli told The Guardian that she once contemplated suicide, but for the intervention of a concerned roommate, she would have been long gone.
“I was ready to die. I was tired; tired of reading, sacrificing, and ending with poor results. I was also tired of explaining to my parents what was happening. It’s like I was making up excuses, and it was a painful experience, but even more painful when you don’t realise why you are failing. Getting a Grade C was like getting a Grade A. When you suddenly dare to meet with the lecturers, you end up being traumatised the most,” she said.
Obiageli said that the event that led her to buy poisonous substances and a bottle of fizzy drink was when she failed a course, which demanded she and other students paying some money and engaging in practicals.
“After I ended up with an F grade despite paying the prescribed amount, and also heading the practicals, I summoned the courage to meet the lecturer to ask her what happened. I couldn’t get a specific answer from her, and I was frustrated, I failed three of her courses and she was not planning to pass me any time soon. If not for God’s intervention, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Nigerian children are always under pressure to do well in school from a young age because achieving academic greatness is intimately linked to success in life. Stress is further exacerbated by deeply rooted cultural demands from society, in addition to parental pressure.
Licenced Psychotherapist and co-founder at Mytherapist.ng, Dedoyin Ajayi, asserted that the Nigerian educational system is becoming very toxic, and that regulatory systems need to be put in place to ensure that students get rewarded for their hard work.
“We need to have a whole conversation about how toxic the academic setting is becoming. When it comes to going to school in Nigeria, it’s like the lecturers seem to have a sadistic opinion about what it means to achieve good grades. They don’t believe that students desire good grades, and they feel that they are entitled to whatever. There appears to be no regulatory system to make sure that students are being rewarded for their hard work.
“So, it is very sad and painful that a lot of young people, especially ladies, will be sexually molested and go through a lot of unspeakable horrors at the hands of their lecturers, just because they want to get good grades,” Ajayi said.
According to Ajayi, this has spiked the suicide rate among young people, and when students know that their success in the academic sector is not largely dependent on how hardworking that they are, they are demoralised; they feel hopeless.
“Being suicidal is largely premised on emotion – hopelessness. When there is no hope, you feel helpless and when you are helpless, you want to end things as the only way out because that’s what your brain is telling you to do. It’s something we need to look into. Regulatory bodies should step in and make lecturers accountable so that the academic sector can be fair and safe for students to do well.
“The academic system is programmed in such a way that it stresses young persons,” she stated, adding that there is a difference between “getting stretched and being stressed.”
Apart from academic pressure, contemporary economic realities, she said also have great impact on increasing cases of suicide.
“An average young person in the world today complains of chronic burnout. It’s a general state of being nowadays.
So, many of them are trying to manage it with the excessive use of social media, while there is a lot of abuse going on. Another thing that social media consumption does is that it opens you up and makes you susceptible to very harmful information. So, the propensity to get depressed by feeding off negative news is higher. Now, you no longer have to wait for the news network to come on by 8:00 p.m. All you need to do is to go online, and boom, there is bad news staring at you,” she explained.
The therapist lamented that with the minimal filter of social media consumption, it means a lot of people are consuming contents that make them liable to triggering an already latent state of depression, and the fact that the world generally is experiencing a very terrible economic situation has increased the rate of suicide among the younger generation.
She recommended that regulated systems like the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), universities, secondary schools, and such bodies should be governed by very stringent policies that render those that are in charge of these young people accountable.
Giving her perspective on the rising suicide rate in the country, a social worker at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Lagos, Ajetunmobi Temitayo Abolaji, posited that some Nigerians are mentally sick, depressed, and has conduct and behavioural disorders.
She, therefore, advised citizens to see a therapist for early treatment, once they experience any strange feelings or emotions.
According to her, a lot can be done to arrest unpleasant situations, but only if the victim speaks up in time, and gets early treatment.
Clinical psychologist and family therapist, Miracle Ihuoma, regretted that even though the advancement of technology and social media have increased the awareness rate of suicide, the rate of suicide among youths has not still reduced.
According to him, social media has rather promoted envy, jealousy, and frustration among youths, adding that technology in recent times, particularly smartphones, actually causes an increase in mental health issues.
“Many youths excessively use their mobile phones for hours and even up to twenty hours a day. So much screen time has its effects including affecting the quality of sleep, and once people have screen time problems, they can slip into depression; they can slip into anxiety, and a lot of other things, which is now a precursor for suicide,” he stated.
