Nigeria: Suicide On The Rise

For various reasons, several youths in Oyo State terminate their own lives

The increasing frequency of suicides in Oyo has become a source of worry to all and sundry. In recent times, the state has recorded a number of suicides by hanging, most especially, by youths. Between April and now, six cases of suicide by young people were reported at the Oyo State Police Command headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan. Three of the victims were between the ages of 12 and 18.

In Agugu area of Ibadan, the state capital, a 40-year-old deaf and dumb man identified as Yemi, at around 9pm on Friday 20 September, hanged himself in the passage of his residence situated at Anisere Compound on Ogunmola Street. According to his mother, Yemi, who left a child named Lekan, was an unsuccessful barber. Yemi ensured that everyone had slept before hanging himself.

“I don’t know why he committed suicide because he didn’t leave a suicide note; maybe because he could not read and write. He didn’t have a wife, apart from his former wife who left him about 12 years ago, leaving behind this boy, Lekan, when he was two years. Lekan is now 16 years. When Yemi was alive, I took care of Lekan, his only son,” the mother stated.

Lekan, the only surviving child of the deceased, added that he dropped out of school in JSS2 because his late father could not fend for him. He added that he was looking up to his grandmother to take him to where he could learn bricklaying.

In the same area, on Friday 31 May, Emmanuel Oluseye, 12, a primary six pupil, hanged himself without leaving a note. The magazine gathered that in the children church on the Sunday preceding his death, he gave testimony to the faithfulness of God in watching over him since the demise of his father. He narrated how he became hopeless in life when he lost his father on 22 October 2012, resulting in his inability to continue his education.  But to his surprise, he claimed, God provided him another father who was taking good care of him, even better than his biological father. He asked his church members to help him thank God for making a way for him when he thought it was all over.

Venerable Zaccheus Bamigboje, Emmanuel’s guardian, revealed that the deceased did not show any sign that he might take his own, adding that the boy prepared lunch for the family and ate his portion before killing himself. Bamigboje said: “The afternoon that he died, my wife asked him to prepare amala for us and he did. He gave the remnant of his food to my dog. After the lunch, while we were watching television, we asked him to go and prepare for his mock examination. At a point, we noticed that he was not around. By 5pm, my wife started looking for him, calling him here and there.”

When the search party got downstairs and inquired about him, a boy said that Oluseye abused him about 15 minutes earlier, after which he went upstairs. They quickly went up and were surprised to discover that he had hung himself. “I was shocked and I had to raise an alarm. We perceived that he was still warm and this propelled us to loosen him and rush him to the University Teaching Hospital, UCH, where he was confirmed dead. He was deposited at the mortuary, after which I had to go and report at Agugu police station,” Bamigboje said.

The clergyman explained that his family got to know, through an acquaintance, about the death of Oluiseye’s father who, incidentally, was also a pastor. In a bid to help, the clergyman asked the mother to bring any of the six children the deceased left behind so that they would help train him to the university level. Few months after, the mother brought Oluseye from Lagos.

“We tried our best to make him comfortable. We enrolled him in a school called Newlife Primary School, bought him uniform and books. When he complained about the school, we changed his school and still bought him new uniform and paid another fee. We did everything for him, even my wife was teaching him English language because she was an English teacher before her retirement,” Bamigboje narrated.

Oluseye was not the only child the Bamigboje family has helped in life. The clergyman and his wife had earlier trained two others – an engineer and a policeman. Bamigboje has, however, vowed never to allow anyone stay with him again: “If I want to help anybody, I will help at a distance.”

On 22 March, Tajudeen Alamu, 13, of Moniya, Ibadan, hanged himself in the uncompleted building owned by his father, Pastor Daniel Alamu. Tajudeen, a Senior Secondary School, SSS, student of Aponmode High School, Moniya, was said to have played football in the school after which he excused himself from his mates. He claimed he wanted to go and take something from home which was not far from the school. He went straight to where he hanged himself.

His father asked the police not to carry out autopsy or any other medical examination on Tajudeen because he wanted him buried immediately so the healing process in the family could commence. The magazine learnt that the police obliged him his request.

On 6 May, Alhaji Salami, who works with AVIANS Farm and lives in Odo Ona Elewe area of Ibadan, reported that he found an unidentified young man of about 18 years hung in the ceiling of an uncompleted building in the area. Accompanying Alhaji Salami to the scene of the suicide, a cop attached to the Divisional Police Station at Challenge found the body of a tall, slim man wearing a T-shirt, white jeans trousers and rubber sandals dangling. After loosening him, it was discovered that there was no mark of violence on his body to indicate foul play. His body was deposited at the mortuary of Adeoyo State Hospital, Yemetu, by the police.

Another suicide was recorded on 15 May, when one Azeez Ajadi of Adefila vilage, Ogbomoso, reported at the police station in Ikoyi division that his son, Tajudeen Azeez, aged 25 and of the same address, was found to have committed suicide by hanging himself in his room with the aid of a rope tied to the ceiling fan. The father, fielding questions from the police, claimed ignorance of the reason his son took his own life. He objected to any medical examination being carried out on the deceased but appealed for the immediate release of the corpse, which was granted. He was buried the same day according to Muslim rites.

On 15 January, residents of Idi Oro in Ona Ara Local Government Area could not comprehend why the Oluwo Ogboni of Egbeda, Kasim Adeniran, hanged himself with a rope tied to the ceiling of his father’s house. The deceased’s daughter, Anifa, said that she saw the rope the father used to hang himself with him the preceding Friday. The father actually told her that he wanted to do something with the rope, which she would later find out! She further disclosed that her father handed his mobile phone and a note to her. After his death, she opened the note, to find out that it contained why he killed himself. She added that the police attached to Akanran police station went away with the note.

On 20 August 2012, one Kehinde Akintunde, 22 and a 400-level student of Civil Engineering at Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, hanged himself in a hotel situated at Apata, Ibadan. Found on him was a suicide note which read in part: “This is the hardest thing for me to do – having to part with my family this way. As far as I am concerned, I have lived my life. I felt like an old man…like a person who has seen it all. I can’t just see any purpose in living. Besides, if you can’t help build it, move to one side. Allow others who can.”  To his family members, he wrote: “I cherish all the years together, but a performer has to leave when the applause is still sounding. I love you.”

According to the hotel management, the deceased booked for a day and when he was not seen in the afternoon the following day to check out, some staff were sent to find out if he wanted to extend his stay. But to their surprise, he had hung himself.

Speaking on the frequent suicides in the state in recent times, the Oyo State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bisi Ilobanefo, expressed shock, saying that there is no reason for anyone to take his or her life because it is criminal. She expressed dismay that most of the victims did not leave suicide notes, which makes it difficult to know why they took such actions. She urged youths to desist from taking their own lives. In her words: “Only a coward takes his or her life. We all know that life is not easy and nothing comes easy in life. If you want to kill yourself because you are from a poor home, why not think about people that come from poor homes and still make it in life? Most of the successful people come from humble backgrounds and they still succeed with hard work, determination and persistence. A good example was the late MKO Abiola.”

Lanre Adebayo, a professor of Psychology at Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, itemised some of the reasons anyone would want to commit suicide. According to him, such incidence is very common among children from broken homes. He urged parents to sacrifice and ensure that separation or divorce is the last option when there is a misunderstanding between them, saying that the ultimate victims of broken homes are the children. He further stated that those who have financial problems are prone to committing suicide.

“Nigeria is too hard and harsh to live in. The economy is highly unfriendly. The economic policy does not take poor people into consideration at all. The government needs to do better than what it is doing now by providing jobs for the citizens,” the professor said.  He also advised that moral values should be taught in schools.

—Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan