ABUJA — Nigeria may be approaching an important turning point in the way it treats people who attempt suicide.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a proposal to amend the country’s mental-health legislation and decriminalise attempted suicide, moving away from a system that can treat a person in acute psychological distress as a criminal offender rather than someone in need of care.
Announcing the decision after Wednesday’s FEC meeting, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, said the proposed amendment would be transmitted to the National Assembly for consideration.
It must be noted however, that FEC’s approval is the beginning of the legislative process, not the repeal of the existing provisions.
Under Section 327 of the Criminal Code, attempting to kill oneself is a misdemeanour punishable by up to one year in prison, while Section 231 of the Penal Code provides similar sanctions in northern Nigeria.
The proposed reform would fundamentally change the philosophy behind those provisions.
Instead of asking how a person who attempted suicide should be punished, the state would be required to ask what drove that person to such a point—and what can be done to keep them alive.
That argument is not new.
The question Ibe Ikwechegh raised
In 2018, lawyer Ibe Ikwechegh, writing in Law and Society Magazine under the title “What the Law Doesn’t Know About Suicide,” questioned whether criminal law adequately understood the circumstances surrounding suicidal behaviour.
His intervention remains remarkably relevant.
Ikwechegh’s argument was that the law could identify the act and prescribe punishment without necessarily understanding the human being behind it. A person who reaches the point of attempting suicide may be dealing with depression, trauma, grief, abuse, isolation, financial distress or a combination of circumstances that cannot be addressed through prosecution.
The question, therefore, is a practical one: What does imprisonment achieve when the person may already be in profound psychological distress?
The Federal Government now appears to be answering that question differently.
Pate said the criminalisation of attempted suicide is inconsistent with the supportive and treatment-oriented approach of the National Mental Health Act 2021 and can discourage people from seeking help.
That is perhaps the most compelling argument for reform. If someone contemplating suicide fears that disclosure could result in arrest or prosecution, the law may inadvertently become another barrier between that person and help.
Decriminalisation is only the first step
Removing attempted suicide from the criminal law would be significant, but it would not by itself solve Nigeria’s mental-health crisis.
A person who survives an attempt needs somewhere to go after the emergency has passed: access to psychological assessment, counselling, psychiatric care where necessary and sustained follow-up. Families need guidance. Schools, universities and workplaces need systems for recognising serious distress and responding appropriately.
Nigeria also needs to invest substantially more in mental-health services.
Pate cited estimates of more than 7,000 suicide deaths annually, about 300,000 attempts and more than 450,000 people requiring psychosocial support each year. The Federal Government has set a target of reducing suicide deaths and attempts by 15 per cent by 2030.
Whatever the limitations of suicide data collection, the figures point to a problem far too large for the criminal justice system to address.
The issue is fundamentally about prevention and care.
A conversation whose time has come
Nigeria has been debating this reform for several years. Previous legislative proposals have sought to replace criminal sanctions with counselling and other rehabilitative measures, reflecting growing recognition that punishment is an inadequate response to suicidal behaviour.
FEC’s decision now gives the reform significant executive backing.
The National Assembly should use the opportunity not merely to remove the offence, but to strengthen the wider framework for suicide prevention, crisis intervention and mental-health care. That is where the real test will lie.
A change in the statute book matters, but a person in crisis ultimately needs more than a better law. They need a healthcare system capable of reaching them, a family that knows where to turn, professionals who can help and a society prepared to treat psychological distress with the same seriousness accorded to physical illness.
This is why Ikwechegh’s question reamins relevant. The law has traditionally focused on what the person did. The emerging approach asks a more important question: What happened to the person?
Nigeria’s proposed reform suggests that, at last, the second question is beginning to matter as much as the first. And that could be a significant step towards a more humane mental-health policy.
Editor’s note: FEC has approved the proposed amendment, but attempted suicide remains a criminal offence until the National Assembly completes the legislative process and the amendment takes legal effect.
