When someone survives a suicide attempt, what should happen next: punishment or care?
Nigeria is confronting this question at a critical moment. On 13 October 2026, the Senate passed, for second reading, a bill seeking to decriminalise attempted suicide and establish a framework for suicide prevention and support. The proposal, sponsored by Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong, advanced despite opposition from Senate President Godswill Akpabio, who argued that attempted suicide should remain punishable by imprisonment.
This debate is about more than criminal law. It concerns how Nigeria responds to people experiencing profound psychological distress, whether survivors can seek help without fear, and what it means for a country to protect human life.
My position is clear: Nigeria should decriminalise attempted suicide and replace punishment with a compassionate, evidence-informed public-health response.
Suicidal distress is complex. There is no single explanation for why someone reaches a point where life feels unbearable. For some people, a suicide attempt may reflect an overwhelming desire to escape psychological pain. Others may be navigating circumstances that are invisible to those around them. We must not reduce every experience to one explanation or assume that every attempt is simply a cry for help.
What we must recognise is that a person who survives an attempt may need urgent medical attention, mental-health assessment and continuing support. Criminal punishment does not provide these interventions.
What the evidence tells us
Nigeria faces significant challenges in understanding the full scale of suicidal behaviour. A 2021 study, Trends and patterns of suicidal behaviour in Nigeria: Mixed-methods analysis of media reports from 2016 to 2019, examined 336 reported suicide events. Because the research relied on media reports, its findings cannot establish the national prevalence of suicide attempts. However, it illustrates the limitations of understanding a sensitive public-health issue through incomplete reporting.
Criminalisation may further discourage disclosure and help-seeking, particularly where people fear stigma, prosecution or public humiliation. Although evidence does not establish that criminalisation invariably increases suicide rates, there is no sound basis for treating imprisonment as a substitute for suicide prevention and mental-health care.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified decriminalisation as an important measure for improving suicide prevention. Its 2023 policy brief explains that criminal penalties can create barriers to seeking help and that legal reform should form part of a wider response to suicidal distress.
The policy question, therefore, is not whether suicide attempts should be taken seriously. They should. It is whether criminal punishment is an appropriate response to someone who may need immediate care and protection.
Nigeria’s human rights obligations matter
Nigeria’s approach should also reflect its international human-rights commitments.
Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognises the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. While this provision does not explicitly prohibit the criminalisation of attempted suicide, it establishes an important foundation for policies that improve access to appropriate healthcare.
More directly, the joint publication by WHO and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation: Guidance and Practice, identifies criminalisation of suicide and attempted suicide as contrary to human rights and highlights its potential to obstruct prevention and discourage help-seeking.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals also call on countries to promote mental health and well-being under Target 3.4.
These commitments reinforce the need for a response that protects dignity, facilitates access to care and prioritises prevention. Decriminalisation is not the entirety of that responsibility, but it is an essential step towards fulfilling it.
Decriminalisation must be followed by action
Removing criminal penalties is necessary, but it cannot be the end of Nigeria’s suicide-prevention efforts. A survivor may be spared prosecution and still be unable to afford treatment, reach a qualified professional or obtain continuing support.
Nigeria must therefore connect legal reform to practical services.
First, people who survive suicide attempts should have access to timely medical attention, appropriate mental-health assessment, treatment and referral. Their care should respect their dignity, confidentiality and individual needs.
Second, healthcare workers, emergency responders and relevant law-enforcement personnel should receive appropriate training to recognise suicidal distress, respond safely and connect people with qualified services.
Third, follow-up support must become part of the response. Where appropriate, survivors should be offered continuing care, safety planning and psychosocial support rather than being discharged from an emergency encounter without a clear pathway to further assistance.
Fourth, Nigeria should strengthen mental health services at community and primary healthcare levels. Support must be accessible beyond major urban centres and specialist facilities.
Finally, government must invest in reliable data, public education and accountability. Better reporting and research can help identify gaps, evaluate interventions and guide resources towards effective prevention.
These commitments require funding, trained personnel and coordination across health institutions, government agencies and communities. They cannot be delivered through awareness campaigns alone.
A legislative opportunity Nigeria must not waste
The Senate’s consideration of the proposed decriminalisation bill provides an opportunity to bring Nigeria’s laws into closer alignment with evidence-informed mental-health policy and international human-rights guidance.
Lawmakers should consult mental-health professionals, public-health researchers, legal experts, youth organisations, civil-society groups and people with lived experience who choose to participate. Their contributions should help shape legislation that is practical, adequately funded and capable of delivering meaningful change.
The government must also ensure that decriminalisation is accompanied by clear referral pathways, accessible services and mechanisms for monitoring implementation.
Opposition to decriminalisation often rests on the assumption that criminal penalties deter suicide attempts. But deterrence should not simply be presumed, particularly when punishment may discourage people from seeking help. Nigeria needs a response informed by evidence about prevention and access to care, not assumptions about what people in psychological crisis need.
Decriminalisation does not encourage suicide or diminish its seriousness. It recognises that a person who survives an attempt should be able to seek care without the additional threat of criminal prosecution.
As a youth mental-health advocate and public-health professional, I believe this moment demands a clear policy choice. Nigeria must move away from treating survival as an offence and towards a system that takes prevention, treatment and recovery seriously.
Survival should not be punished. It should be met with protection, appropriate care and a genuine opportunity for recovery.
Soneye is a youth mental-health advocate, public-health professional and founder and executive director of The Haven Mind Youth Mental Health Initiative
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