More Nigerian youths are committing suicide, lawmakers lament

The House of Representatives has called on the federal ministry of health to devise a national strategy to address the underlying mental health factors leading to rising cases of suicide in the country.

It also seeks a review of the mental health laws of the country to help address the issue.

This follows the adoption of a motion moved by Jonathan Gaza Gbefwi (APC, Nassarawa) during the plenary on Thursday.

Presenting the motion, the lawmaker stated that there is a prevalence of suicide cases in Nigeria, especially among youths between the ages of 15-29 years in the country in recent times.

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He said statistics are showing that one-fifth of suicide cases are of persons aged 13-19 years and over 50% of the crisis calls received through hotlines are from youth aged 13-29 and 27.8% of them are students.

He said, “According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), suicides and attempted suicide cases recorded in the 36 states of the Federation, including the FCT, were 333 and 196 respectively as of 2017, while other reports show that about 80 persons ended their lives between April 8, 2017, and May 12, 2019.”

He added that socio-economic factors are contributing largely to mental illness like depression, anxiety disorders and others, which he said are on the increase and are the leading causes of suicide in Nigeria.

He said there was a need for the review of mental health law in the country in order to strengthen mental healthcare services to Nigerians to reduce the rate of suicide.

He added, “The only form of legislation on mental health is the Lunacy Ordinance enacted in 1916 that assumed the status of law in 1958.”

Daily Trust