… as advocates demand wider mental health reform
Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council has approved a proposed amendment to the National Mental Health Act that would decriminalise attempted suicide, in a move campaigners described as a significant shift away from treating people in suicidal crisis as offenders.
The move comes against the backdrop of longstanding criminal provisions that make attempted suicide an offence in Nigeria. Section 327 of the Criminal Code Act and Section 231 of the Penal Code expose people who survive suicide attempts to possible imprisonment.
Mental health advocates welcomed the decision but cautioned that removing criminal penalties alone will not address the country’s suicide crisis.
The Nigerian Mental Health and the Nigeria Suicide Prevention Advocacy Working Group, in a press release, urged lawmakers to urgently pass the National Suicide Prevention Bill 2024 and called for the full implementation of the National Mental Health Act.
They said the decision marked an important step towards recognising suicide attempts as a public health issue requiring care and intervention rather than arrest and prosecution.
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The groups commended the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, and the Federal Executive Council for supporting the reform, arguing that criminalisation can deepen the distress of survivors, discourage help-seeking and make families less willing to report suicide attempts or seek emergency assistance.
The advocacy groups cited World Health Organisation estimates that about 15,000 Nigerians die by suicide each year, while roughly 300,000 suicide attempts occur annually.
The WHO also identifies suicide as the third leading cause of death globally among people aged 15 to 29, a particular concern for Nigeria, whose population is predominantly young.
The campaigners said the proposed reform followed years of advocacy, including the #SuicideNotCrimeNG campaign, which brought together more than 40 mental health-focused professional associations, non-governmental organisations and businesses.
Chime Asonye, founder of Nigerian Mental Health, said the FEC decision recognised the distinction between punishment and medical intervention.
“A person who survives a suicide attempt needs a clinician, not a charge sheet. The Council has now said so, and that matters,” Asonye said.
He, however, warned that the government’s target of reducing suicide deaths and attempts by 15 per cent by 2030 would not be achieved through legal reform alone.
Asonye pointed to the failure to establish and fund the Department of Mental Health Services mandated by the National Mental Health Act 2021, saying the institutional gap threatens to undermine implementation of the law.
The campaigners said the proposed National Suicide Prevention Bill 2024 would complement decriminalisation by establishing a framework for suicide prevention, including improved data collection, crisis intervention services, dedicated funding and specialised training for healthcare professionals and first responders.
Prof. Taiwo Lateef Sheikh, convener of the Nigeria Suicide Prevention Advocacy Working Group, said the amendment and the bill should be viewed as complementary reforms.
“The amendment and the National Suicide Prevention Bill are two halves of one reform: one removes the punishment, the other builds what should be there instead,” Sheikh said.
He warned that passing only the decriminalisation amendment would leave important gaps in Nigeria’s response to suicide.
“The executive has moved; the question now belongs to the National Assembly: whether both pass in this session or wait for another. Every year they wait is counted in lives,” he said.
The advocates also raised concerns about the wider implementation of the National Mental Health Act, which was passed in 2021.
They said the Department of Mental Health Services had still not been established and funded more than three years after the legislation was enacted. They also noted that the Act had not been domesticated in many states.
The organisations warned that without the necessary structures, decriminalisation could remain largely symbolic.
According to them, removing attempted suicide from the criminal code must result in practical changes in police stations, hospitals and emergency services.
“Reform is measured by what changes in a police station and a general hospital, not by what changes in the gazette,” the groups said.
The organisations also called on the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Justice to publish the proposed amendment, saying public access to the draft would allow civil society groups, legal experts and lawmakers to determine whether it would achieve full decriminalisation.
The groups outlined three immediate priorities: passage of the National Suicide Prevention Bill 2024; establishment and funding of the Department of Mental Health Services; and publication of the proposed executive amendment.
They said the FEC decision could change how Nigeria responds to people who survive suicide attempts, but stressed that its success will depend on effective implementation.
Decriminalisation could remove the threat of prosecution and make it easier for people in crisis to seek assistance.
However, without accessible mental health services, trained professionals, crisis response systems and reliable national data, the legal change may have limited impact.
The advocates are therefore pressing the National Assembly and federal health authorities to treat the measures as part of a broader transformation of Nigeria’s mental health system.
For them, the test of the reform will not simply be whether attempted suicide disappears from the statute books, but whether people experiencing suicidal distress can access care without fear of arrest, stigma or punishment.
The proposed amendment now awaits consideration by the National Assembly, where campaigners say lawmakers have an opportunity to turn the executive decision into lasting change in Nigeria’s approach to suicide prevention.
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