It was a fateful Sunday morning on May 12, 2019, when Christians go to churches to commune with their maker (God) in worship, praises and prayers, that Chukwuemeka Akachi, a 400-level student of the Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (UNN), signed up on Facebook and wrote his suicide note.
“Forgive me? In case you are the one who found the body, I am really sorry. I have chosen Jo Nketaih’s poem as my suicide note: “They said you came looking for me. I don’t drown, I was the water,
“My mental health has been on life support for a while now. Thanks to those who call. Text. Visit. Speak to me. You may have added a few hours, months or days to my time here. But you know life support is expensive right?” the suicide note, which was revealed by one of Akachi’s friends, who does not want his name on the print, read.
Exactly on May 14, two days after putting up this note on Facebook, the news about the unfortunate death of Akachi went viral on social media, online, national dailies and other news platforms.
It was reported that Akachi committed suicide on Monday in an uncompleted building located at Sullivan Road, Nsukka where he allegedly slipped into coma after taking two bottles of ‘Sniper’, an insecticide.
However, his unconscious body, which was discovered by passersby, was rushed to UNN Federal Medical Centre for revival, where he was declared dead after doctors made futile efforts to save him.
It was gathered that this was not the first time Akachi wanted to commit suicide, as on two occasions, he had taken kerosene and petrol to kill himself but was rescued.
The unfortunate story of Akachi was one among many others that have been making the rounds in Nigeria, especially among youths in recent times.
As Nigerians were yet to come to terms with the news of Akachi’s death, another story started circulating that Michael Arowosaiye, a gospel minister of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), has allegedly committed suicide.
Arowosaiye, according to the story, committed suicide on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, around 4 pm at his residence in Sunnyvale Estate Abuja.
It was reported that the deceased, who hanged himself with a belt, entered into depression, for not being able to pay for his house rent.
The situation surrounding the death of Arowosaiye was further confirmed by Femi Fani-Kayode, who condemned the role of the church in the life of the deceased.
Fani-Kayode wrote on his twitter handle, “For a Church to sit by and do nothing when one of its young ministers cannot pay his rent is sad. For them to turn their backs on him and drive him into such a state of frustration, despair and desperation that he ends up committing suicide, is damn right condemnable. RCCG why?”
A few days ago, a 22-year-old man, identified simply as Segun, gave up the ghost a general hospital in Ogun State after he drank insecticide, sniper.
Reports said that Segun decided to take his life after he scored 167 in the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME). He was said to have been frustrated following his repeated failure to secure admission into a tertiary institution despite several attempts.
He lamented that in 2015 when he sat the examination, he scored 189, adding that when he tried again in 2016, he scored 202.
The victim said when he attempted in 2017, he scored 233 and failed to get admission due to lack of funds. He lamented that when he eventually got a sponsor, he could not get a good exam result in 2019.
He was said to have announced his plan to kill himself on his Twitter handle, @TweetsOfSHEGUN.
Going down memory lane, it will be recalled that several deaths by suicide among youths, especially among undergraduates, were recorded in 2017 and 2018.
For instance, one Onyebuchi Okonkwo, a third year Physics/Astronomy undergraduate of the UNN was found dead at an uncompleted building located beside the hockey pitch in the school. He was believed to have committed suicide as his lifeless body was found dangling on a rope suspended from a height.
In October 2017, a 16-year old Mercy Afolaranmi, 100-level student of Microbiology at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, allegedly took her own life by drinking rat poison mixed with battery extracts, a death which was blamed on emotional pressure.
Aside from this, in February 2018, Wilson Chukwudi, a student of Abia State University, was reported to have committed suicide for failing to graduate after two successive academic sessions.
A month after, a final-year student of Computer Engineering at the University of Benin, identified as Adams, was found dangling from the roof of his room at Ekosodin Community in Ovia North-East Local Government Area of the state.
In Nigeria presently, suicide has become a serious societal challenge and health problem, and it has been rated as the third leading cause of death for teenagers between the ages of 15 and 24 years.
Most of the reported cases resulted from several factors including mental illness, poverty, substance abuse, social isolation, losses, relationship difficulties and workplace problems.
This fact was reinforced by the report of the Spectator Index that published a World Health Organization (WHO) study, which ranked suicides per 100,000 cases.
According to the report, Nigeria has 15 percent per 100,000 cases, showing that Nigeria ranks as a country with 5th highest rate of suicide in the world.
“It was frustration because I don’t believe that spiritual manipulation could lead someone into commit suicide,” Sunday Oke, a graduate of Psychology from a Nigerian university told BDSUNDAY.
Sometimes, Oke said, people who are psychologically stable can find themselves in a difficult situation where it would become very hard to accept and they will decide to take their lives.
Oke told BDSUNDAY a story of a friend of his, who wanted to commit suicide years back but failed following the intervention of family and friends.
“Years back, I knew of a friend who wrote and failed his General Certificate of Education (GCE) examination. As a result, he took a knife and was stabbing himself such that he nearly stabbed himself to death. When, I heard the story and confronted him, he told me that he was already tired of staying idle at home and was also angry with live for not giving him a chance to gain admission into the higher institution like others. My friend, at that time, was frustrated and desperate to move ahead in life, but was limited by his inability to pass his GCE exams,” Oke added.
Investigation by BDSUNDAY revealed that youth suicide is increasing at its greatest rate. This was largely attributed to depression, which has also become a serious problem for adolescents, and is one of the significant biological and psychological risk factor for youth suicide, today.
According to WHO, suicide attempts are up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicides; and suicide rates have traditionally been highest among elderly males, but rates among young people have been increasing such that they are now the group at highest risk in all countries.
“I see what is happening in Nigeria today as more of frustration that was not checked and it led to depression, which ended up in suicide,” said Kunle Aremu, an educationist.
The big question is how can a youth, who has nobody to cater for, become depressed out of frustration?
Depression, according to Aremu, can even happen to a 5-year old who might have been nursing feeling of lack of love, and have been fighting loneliness for a long time.
“This was why it has become very important for parents to always read the minds of their children irrespective of their ages, to know what is weighing them down in order to talk them out of such situation,” he stated.
“The rising cases of suicide among our youths also show that we are not parenting enough. Most times, our children will need to talk to us (parents) but they will not see anybody to talk to especially, those children who are being molested and abused physically or sexually.
Blaming parents for contributing, he pointed that high expectations of parents from their children often cause frustration and gradually leads children to exhibit symptoms of depression.
“If the parents are not there for their children, the difficult situation in which they found themselves in life, may pressure them into joining peer groups that force them to live abnormal lives. This is a new development in today’s society because in the past the parents were always there to guide the children appropriately at all times,” Aremu added.
“Upbringing plays a role in framing the minds of our children. Today, children try every means possible to measure up with peers. That is why you hardly see a 16-year, who is still a virgin but you see an under aged indulging in drugs. All these abuses have a way of putting our children and even us adult, into a state of psychological imbalance,” he said.
Meanwhile, there seems to be a close link between the present economic situation in the country with the increasing rate of depression and suicide. Nigeria is a country where hardship has become part of everyday life because a significant number of Nigerian population lives below the former minimum wage of N18,000,000 per month.
However, report has it that about 90 percent of people, who commit suicide suffer from mental illness. It identified the five leading causes of death to include sickness, which controls 26 percent; poverty, 24 percent; motor accident, 16 percent; malnutrition, 7 percent and natural death, 6 percent.
“While many cases of suicide can be linked to mental disorders, it is a well-established fact that the decision to kill oneself can also be impulsive and has been severally linked to a person’s inability to deal with life’s challenges such as financial crisis, heart break, chronic or terminal illness, physical abuse, loss of a loved one etc,” says, the Center for Health Ethics Law and Development (CHELD).
CHELD stated further that “while suicide puts an end to the pain a person suffers, it puts loved ones in a state of shame, grief, guilt for not preventing the suicide, a feeling of failure because the person they loved felt unloved or unappreciated enough to commit suicide, distress over unresolved issues and prolonged sadness.
It added that multiple researches have shown suicide affects the mental health of loved ones and that the children of suicidal parents are at increased risk of committing suicide themselves.
“While we salute those already educating people on mental health, we need more hands on deck; more educators on depression, especially in areas where people live below the minimum wage reside,” advised Motolani Alake, on his article on ‘Here is why our country is ranked 5th on annual suicide list’ published on Pulse Nigeria.
BDSUNDAY discovered that suicide did not start today as it has been happening before but has escalated among youths. Culturally and religiously, it is often considered a taboo for anyone to commit suicide.
“Suicide was on the increase as a result of socio-economic pressure. There is an erosion of the traditional values and the family system. We have always had a fair share of economic pressure, but the presence of the Internet and mobile phones have increased the pressure,” reportedly said Adeoye Oyewole, a Psychiatrist, Life Coach, Mental Health Advocate, Theologian and Anthropologist at Lifecare Consult.
According to him, most families send their children abroad for holiday and when these children come back, they begin to mount pressure on their parents to give them what they saw during their visits.
“Also, young ladies in urban areas want to give birth abroad, whether their husbands can afford it or not. That is why more suicides are recorded in urban regions.
Therefore, parents have a lot of role to play in helping the children to manage societal pressures and its attendant depression. There is need for adults to be watchful, particularly parents, to prevent occurrence of depression and suicide incidents.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
