By Jibrin Okutepa SAN.
A society that responds to attempted suicide primarily with prosecution and imprisonment may be punishing the very people it ought to rescue. With profound respect to the President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I respectfully disagree with any suggestion that persons who attempt to take their own lives should necessarily be prosecuted and imprisoned. Such an approach, in my considered view, fails to appreciate the complex psychological, emotional, economic and social circumstances that can drive human beings to the extreme point of contemplating suicide.
Nobody should be encouraged to take their own life. Life is sacred, precious and deserving of protection. But we must distinguish between deliberate criminal conduct and the desperate actions of individuals overwhelmed by circumstances they can no longer cope with. A person who attempts suicide may be battling depression, unbearable economic hardship, family breakdown, emotional trauma, social rejection, or a profound sense of hopelessness. Such a person does not primarily need the cold walls of a prison. Such a person needs compassion, professional counselling, appropriate medical care, rehabilitation, reorientation and renewed hope in the value of life.
What exactly does society hope to achieve by imprisoning someone who has already reached the point of believing that life is no longer worth living? Will imprisonment restore that person’s hope? Will criminal prosecution address the underlying causes of their despair? Or will the humiliation, stigma and isolation associated with imprisonment further deepen the psychological wounds that led to the attempted suicide? The purpose of a humane justice system should not merely be to punish conduct but also to understand its causes, prevent its recurrence and restore human dignity.
Government must recognise that protecting human life goes beyond criminal legislation. It includes creating conditions in which citizens can live with dignity, access mental healthcare, obtain meaningful social support and find hope even in their darkest moments. When a person attempts suicide, the first response of the state should be to save that life, assess the person’s circumstances, provide necessary treatment and support recovery. Criminal prosecution should not be the automatic response to a cry of desperation. Our criminal justice philosophy must evolve beyond the assumption that every troubling human behaviour can be corrected through imprisonment. In some cases, compassion achieves far more than punishment, and rehabilitation serves society better than incarceration.
I therefore respectfully urge the National Assembly to embrace a more humane, evidence-informed and rehabilitative approach to attempted suicide. We must strengthen mental health services, establish accessible counselling and crisis intervention centres, and remove the stigma that prevents vulnerable people from seeking help. A nation is judged not only by how severely it punishes wrongdoing, but also by how compassionately it treats its most vulnerable citizens. Let us build a Nigeria where those who have lost hope are helped to rediscover it, where emotional distress is met with understanding rather than condemnation, and where the law becomes an instrument of restoration rather than an additional burden upon the distressed. When a citizen attempts to end their life, the first question should not be, “What punishment does this person deserve?” It should be, “What suffering brought this person to this point, and what can we do to ensure that they never return there?” That, to me, is the true meaning of justice tempered with humanity.
