Nigeria’s House of Representatives yesterday passed for second reading a bill that seeks to sentence anyone who attempts to kill themselves to community service for six months and compulsory counselling service.

Section 327 of the Criminal Code Act states that any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to imprisonment for one year.

However, the House bill sponsored by Rep. Francis Waive (APC, Delta) is seeking to replace the prison term with compulsory counselling and community service for a period not less than six months.

Leading the debate on the motion, Waive said that any suicidal act with a non-fatal outcome is labelled by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as ‘attempted suicide’.

According to him, suicide is today identified as the second leading cause of death among 15-35 years old globally, while statistics indicate that 79% of global suicide is attributed to low and middle-income countries.

He said further that over the last 45 years, suicide rates have increased by about 60%; thus establishing it to be a major public health problem (WHO, mental health).

He said further that defects of mental health such as; depression, long term substance abuse disorder, schizophrenia, mood disorder, psychosis and other psychiatric disorders are the most common risk factors linked to suicidal behaviour.
He said nearly one-third of suicidal attempts repeat the behaviour within a year and some of the attempters eventually commit suicide.
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Rubbish.Why won't people attempt to commit sucide when the economy is trashed
Useless government

i think suicide is actually a psychological issue, even if the economy of the country is bad, 99% of people are still struggling and don't even consider suicide as an option. i think the move is okay, at least instead of wasting you life, you can used it to work for the community.

Don't you think they will be even more depressed after the six months community service and the urge to commit suicide stronger?..

There's a reason it's called correctional center abroad

internationalman:
Don't you think they will be even more depressed after the six months community service and the urge to commit suicide stronger?..

There's a reason it's called correctional center abroad

well maybe if they meet other people like them there, they may form a group to talk about their problem.