Nigeria’s national suicide prevention strategic framework 2023-2030 and the move to decriminalise attempted suicide

The Federal Executive Council’s approval of an amendment to decriminalise attempted suicide marks the latest and most significant step yet in Nigeria’s effort to move from punishment to prevention. Instrumental to this outcome has been the National Taskforce on the Decriminalisation of Attempted Suicide, inaugurated in October 2024 and chaired by Professor Cheluchi Onyemelukwe, working closely with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and civil society organisations. The amendment was developed by the National Taskforce and further refined through consultations with the Ministries of Health and Justice, the Attorney General’s office, and mental health advocates. It is now due to be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and passage. As the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, explained, the reform is driven by the recognition that attempted suicide should not be treated as a crime and that a person who survives an attempt deserves medical attention and psychosocial support rather than arrest and prosecution.

Decriminalisation is the door opener through which Nigeria can strengthen its response to suicide, a challenge that criminalisation has plainly failed to deter. This progress is the clearest sign yet that the National Suicide Prevention Strategic Framework (NSPSF) (2023 to 2030) developed by the Federal Ministry of Health is now delivering on one of its central commitments. The framework’s objective is to reduce Nigeria’s suicide rate through cost-effective programmes and health and socioeconomic interventions that change behaviour and lifestyle, reaching the general population as well as groups known to be at higher risk. It commits Nigeria to the wider global goal, shared with the World Health Organization and the Sustainable Development Goals, of cutting suicide rates by a third by 2030, and the government has now set its own national target of a 15 percent reduction in suicide deaths and attempts by 2030.

The significance of this reform becomes more apparent when Nigeria’s criminal law is considered alongside the nation’s evolving approach to mental health. Attempted suicide remains an offence under provisions inherited from the colonial era, particularly Section 327 of the Criminal Code Act in the South and Section 231 of the Penal Code in the North and the Federal Capital Territory. These provisions are difficult to reconcile with the National Mental Health Act, which is built around protection, treatment and support for people in crisis.

The National Mental Health Act gives that observation legislative weight in at least two respects. First, it embeds suicide prevention directly into the statute requiring the development of a National Suicide Prevention Strategy. Section 57 defines a psychiatric emergency to include attempted suicide, alongside acute intoxication, severe depression, acute psychosis and violent behaviour, placing it within the domain of immediate clinical response rather than criminal sanction. Where a person is found to be a danger to himself, Section 41 empowers a police officer above the rank of Inspector or a staff member of the Social Welfare Department to remove that person to a place of safety, defined under the Act to exclude a prison, police cell or related facility, for examination and arrangement of care within 48 hours. Where continuing care becomes necessary, admission proceeds under the safeguards in Section 28, including examination by two independent qualified medical practitioners, review and approval by the Mental Health Assessment Committee, a right of appeal directly to the Court of Appeal, and a treatment plan formulated by a medical officer with the requisite experience, none of which has any equivalent under the criminal provisions the amendment seeks to displace.

The Nigerian Government is to be commended for building this framework since 2023 and, more recently, for taking the legislative step needed to give its central objective full force of law. With the amendment on its way to the National Assembly and the National Suicide Prevention Strategic Framework’s programme of work already running across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, the much-awaited legal reform is within reach. Decriminalisation, however, is not the end of the journey. Its passage by the National Assembly is a step in the right direction towards suicide prevention as anticipated by the National Suicide Prevention Strategic Framework.

Cheluchi Onyemelukwe; Chair, National TaskForce on the decriminalisation of attempted suicide and founder, Centre for Health, Ethics, Law and Development (CHELD).