PRESS STATEMENT
SUICIDE IS NO SOLUTION – an initiative comprising a group of volunteers engaged in multiple anti-suicide initiatives with the key task of achieving a significant reduction in the rate of deaths by suicide in Nigeria through strong public enlightenment and advocacy campaigns that dissuade citizens from taking their own lives has condemned the rising wave of online suicide related content by Nigerians.
The group stated that it has noticed with dismay the alarming rate of suicide themed skits by Nigerian content creators without due regard and sensitivity to suicide contemplators and persons with suicide ideation. It also expressed strong disapproval with the indiscriminate association of some brands with death by suicide.
Project Coordinator of SUICIDE IS NO SOLUTION INITIATIVE, Toye Arulogun in a media statement on Monday, stated that suicide is a serious issue, not a joke that should be the theme of explicit suicide promoting online videos.
According to Arulogun, “We have noticed in the last couple of weeks an upswing of reckless and insensitive online content by Nigerian content creators promoting deaths by suicide. Most of the content also mention and display some brands as suicide tools or agents thereby pointing anyone with suicide ideation or contemplation to what to use; bringing the name, image and reputation of such brands into disrepute”
“With over 95,000 deaths by suicide globally in less than two months alone into this year, Nigeria’s staggering statistics of a death by suicide every 33 seconds and an estimated 15, 000 to 16,000 deaths annually, the issue needs no trivialisation and deserves to be treated with utmost seriousness. What our content creators should be doing is to come up with skits dissuading Nigerians from killing themselves no matter the situation rather than the current wave of self harm promotion”.
Arulogun admonished Nigerian content creators to desist from this needless act urging affected brand owners to embark on enlightenment campaigns and legal action against recalcitrant culprits. He also called on media practitioners, marketing communications professionals and regulators, mental health practitioners as well as other stakeholders to rise against this wave of unwholesome content.
The Suicide Is No Solution Initiative focuses on three main areas; “Suicide Prevention”, “Responsible Suicide Reporting” and “Attempted Suicide is Not A Crime” through collaborations with the media on suicide reporting and influencing the law on attempted suicide.
e – Signed
Toye ARULOGUN
Project Coordinator
SUICIDE IS NO SOLUTION
081 081 300 30
