Nigeria is one of eight countries in Africa where attempted suicide is against the law. The law originally came into effect back when the country was a British Colony, and was abolished by Britain in 1961, although Nigeria gained its independence a year prior. While survivors of attempted suicide rarely face jail time, the process of being arrested and being held is the cruelest aspect of the outdated law. Among those who have been locked up as a result of attempting suicide, Ifeanyi Ugokwe a 25-year-old who was pushed to his breaking point after being jobless and hungry for weeks. After jumping into a lagoon and being saved by fishermen then handed off to police, he was put in a cell with mentally disturbed people, and was forced to take pills. Employing a punishment in response to someone trying to take their life rather than providing help only worsens the survivors’ conditions. Mental health programs need improvement all around the world, and the first step in parts of the world like Sub-Saharan Africa is abolishing these laws. Another attribute to many attempted and successful suicides, is the high rate of unemployment especially among the youth population. Nigeria has the highest rate of incidences of depression, coming in at around 4% of the population, and as the population continues to grow at the rapid rate it is now, unemployment and suicides will also go up. Without giving adequate attention towards the countries in this region experiencing similar trends, and without making adjustments tailored to the populations of the countries, countries like Nigeria will experience an increase in devastations. When survivors of suicide do not receive help after the fact, they are likely to attempt again in their future. Without mental health resources and unemployment outreach programs, a country of this rate of growth cannot continue and will most likely see a dramatic drop in population which will only further wound the country. On an individual level, it is morally wrong and should not be allowed to go on the way it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigeria is one of eight countries in Africa where attempted suicide is against the law. The law originally came into effect back when the country was a British Colony, and was abolished by Britain in 1961, although Nigeria gained its independence a year prior. While survivors of attempted suicide rarely face jail time, the process of being arrested and being… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2887,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2878\/revisions\/2887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}