On September 10, 2026, the federal ministry of health and social welfare in Nigeria announced that the federal executive Council had approved the government’s position on decriminalizing attempted suicide with the proposed reform to proceed to the National Assembly.
Against this background, a bill seeking to establish a National suicide-prevention framework, decriminalise attempted suicide and provide rehabilitation for survivors had passed second reading in the senate.
While seconding the Bill at the senate plenary on Tuesday, October 13 Ondo South representative, Senator Dayo Faduyile said there is need to stop criminalising suicide in Nigeria because a good number of people who indulge in such a thought are suffering from depression which is a medical condition.
In his Bill titled “Decriminalizing attempt to commit suicide” Senator Ekpeyong from Cross River South, emphasised that to prosecute a victim of failed suicide attempt is to worsen the case as it goes beyond norm for any rational human being to make attempt to take his own life.
While seconding the Bill, Senator Faduyile noted that depression brings suicide and not dying during a suicide attempt for the victim requires mental health attention rather than chaining them through the prosecutorial route.
The professor of pathology and Forensic medicine maintained that suicide is not a deliberate act for a willing soul and nobody of his or her own volition volunteers to end their own life adding that the best way to treat anyone who did not die of suicide is not to criminalise them but rather to interrogate the cause of the morbid resolve that pushes people to such “tip off clip” He explains that suicide victims deserve to be well treated and subjected to good medical treatment and by so doing they will realise that they have no right to take their own life.
The senate president, Godswill Akpabio later referred the Bill to the Committee on judiciary, Human Rights and Health (Tertiary and Secondary) for further consideration.
The World Health Organisation WHO, Nigeria country data page reports a 2021 suicide mortality rate of 4.41 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019 with uncertainty interval of 2.66-6.11. WHO also warns that Nigeria death-registration data are unavailable or unsuitable for reliable cause of death statistics.
Senator Dayo Faduyile’s seconding of the motion is significant from three dimensions: From the medical, it reinforces the argument that survivors need assessment, treatment and rehabilitation rather than outright criminal punishment, from the Legislative, seconding the motion places him among the lawmakers participating in an effort to change the legal response to attempted suicide and from the institutional perspective, his membership of the senate committee on health (Tertiary and Secondary) could provide him the opportunity to contribute medical and Forensic expertise during committee consideration.
