A new study has revealed that more Nigerian men committed suicide in 2019 than women. The study carried out by hypothesis.com, an independent research group, was a content analysis of reported cases of suicide in both mainstream and social media from January to December 2019. The figures showed that 65 suicide cases were recorded in 2019 out of which 75% (49 persons) were cases involving men while 15% (16 persons) were women. The study further showed that 23 students committed suicide in 2019.
The complete list of suicide victims in various states of the country was also recorded in the study. Most of the incidents were cross-checked in both social and mainstream media to further measure authenticity of the incidents. The doubtful incidents which appeared in just one or two social media platforms were not recorded.
The study revealed that 23 students committed suicide out of the 65 cases in 2019, as reported in the media. Of this number, 60% were male students while 40% were female students. Experts and scholars attempted to explain why a relatively large number of students committed suicide in 2019.

Prof. Stella Okunna of the Department of Mass Communication, Nnamdi Azikiwe University says peer pressure played a key role. According to her:
“Peer pressure is a primary cause in this case. Your peers assessment of you; you can blame social media somehow because people are living a false life on social media. Sometimes people are not what they present on social media. As they keep pretending and things don’t turn out the way they expected they become frustrated. This also happens to couples. Come and see the way some of them refer to themselves in public, “oh my darling wife, oh my lovely husband” yet at home they’ve not spoken to one another for a week. That frustration of living a double life forces you to the brink.”

To Prof. Nkwam Uwaoma of the Department of Psychology, Imo State University, “You talk about academic frustration. This issue of sex for grade, money for grade, some of them may not be able to pay, especially those from poor families. Apart from this, even the students from wealthy homes, some of them are reading the courses they were forced to read and the family expectation is so high on them and things like that.”

Prof. Lai Oso of School of Communication, Lagos State University, also contributed his opinion on the involvement of a relatively large number of students in suicide incidents in 2019. According to him;
“If you look at it they may be on the same pressure. The shame that you can’t measure up; you know African society we tend to put so much value on the male child. So if the male child thinks that he has disappointed the family by not measuring up there is that tendency to want to go to the extreme. Women could be able to bear so thing.”

Among the 23 students that committed suicide in 2019, there were more male students (14) than female students (9). So the argument of high expectations among men possibly relates to this finding.
See details of the study;
https://massmediang.com/23-nigerian-students-committed-suicide-in-2019/

death is never the solution

Wait let 2019 finish first, someone somewhere probably just bought a sniper now.

Thank God for Timaya’s song. “ I can’t kill myself”. That song stopped many things.