I checked my calendar today to
find to my chagrin that today is
World Suicide Prevention Day.
I’d have let that pass if I hadn’t
been inundated with the
rampancy of news of suicides in
Nigeria in particular and the
world generally.

By now, I’m sure you’d have
heard that Ariel Castro who was
charged and convicted for
kidnaping for more than a
decade women who were in
their teens at the time of their
abduction, and repeatedly raped
them, even terminating their
pregnancies over the years in
Cleveland, Ohio was found
dead, hanging in his cell.

This isn’t about Ariel Castro even
though I used his example since
it’s the most recent of cases
(and for lack of any other
example in recent times, though
a myriad of other popular and
less popular suicide events of
note, come to mind).

I will not belabour you with facts
and figures, you can readily
glean from google or World
Health Organization, WHO sites,
but from what hear and see on
a daily basis, it will be a great
understatement to merely state
that the incidence of suicides in
todays’ world is on the increase,
geometrically if I might add.

In Nigeria like in many African
countries, suicides used to be
very rare (though there’re no
official figures to confirm this),
as news of such events were few
and far between. In many
cultures in Africa, suicide is
considered an abomination, and
a suicide victim back in the day
(in some of these cultures) were
buried outside the village or city
walls (or in so called ‘EVIL
FORESTS’), and that’s regardless
of his/her status in society.

With the westernization of many
African societies, and the
detaboolization of many actions
hitherto considered taboo,
deplorable acts like suicide have
now become rampant, and no
thanks to advancement in
science, medicine and
technology, the means to
procure it has become easier
and even less painful.

Suicides have come to stay with
us, with no day passing without
news of one or the other person
opting to leave via that means.
Even though we may consider
the numbers much, the number
of those who have successfully
bid life goodbye by committing
suicide pales to the many who
failed in their attempt and were
not even caught in the act or
noticed, like it had been for
Paris, the late Michael Jackson’s
daughter.

Besides, there remain yet a
multitude of people who at one
point or the other in their lives
had to battle with the thought of
actualizing the act, but never
gathered enough guts to see it
through. So no matter how you
see it, it is important that suicide
as an issue or urgent national
and international issue be
discussed and solutions
proffered aimed at reducing if
not totally curbing the incidence
of this menace.

It is for this reason, that despite
my shock at discovering that
there’s such a day as this, I’m
very glad that it does exist and
will serve as an opportunity for it
to be discussed.

Unfortunately, suicide as a
menace has failed to garner the
kind of attention others like the
perennial attention grabber
that’s HIV/AIDS would on its day,
but it hardly takes away from it,
the devastation it leaves family,
friends, close and distant
acquaintances of victims in.
It leaves everyone wondering
how such came to be, how it is
that no one saw it coming, and if
there was anything that could’ve
been done to have prevented
the unfortunate outcome.

Sadly, the society we once had
in Africa that was quite closed
and supportive of its members
has become now more
individualized and westernized,
and then coupled with prevalent
poverty, creating an avenue
where the frustrated are now no
more looking to delay their visit
back to their creator.

The pressure we face nowadays
in all spheres of life is also
contributory, coupled with the
harsh environment where it’s
become anathema to not be an
achiever.

I must not end this without
mentioning the contribution
bullying makes to the high
suicide frequency. It’s difficult to
find kids nowadays who aren’t
themselves bullies, who hadn’t
been bullied at one time or the
other. The rising case of cyber
bullying is another case in point.

It only boils down to the fact
that we must pay some
attention to those we love as
well as those we make
acquaintance with routinely. We
may not have the solution to
their problem or challenges,
they may not even want it, but
they may just need that attentive
ear, which only you at that point
stand the chance to provide.

Pay some attention today for it
may be the last time you get to
hear from the next suicide
victim!

‘kovich


WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY | madukovich's cogitations - http://madukovich./2013/09/10/world-suicide-day/