‘Nigeria records one suicide every 33 seconds’

2026-03-03 - 00:37

By Adeola Badru IBADAN — AN anti-suicide advocacy group, Suicide Is No Solution, yesterday, raised the alarm over Nigeria’s escalating suicide crisis, highlighting that a death occurs every 33 seconds and an estimated 15,000 to 16,000 Nigerians die by suicide annually. The group warned that the issue required serious attention and should not be trivialised. Project Coordinator of the group, Mr Toye Arulogun, in a statement, said the figures are part of a wider global concern, with over 95,000 deaths by suicide recorded worldwide in just the first two months of this year. He said this underlined the urgent need for public awareness and responsible content creation. Arulogun said: “We have noticed in the last couple of weeks an upswing of reckless and insensitive online content by Nigerian content creators promoting deaths by suicide. “Most of the content also mentions and displays some brands as suicide tools or agents, thereby pointing anyone with suicide ideation or contemplation to what to use; bringing the name, image and reputation of such brands into disrepute. “What our content creators should be doing is to come up with skits dissuading Nigerians from killing themselves, no matter the situation, rather than the current wave of self-harm promotion.”