Why did a 20-yr-old secondary school student commit suicide?

fuad lawal

October 14, 2016 12:59 PM

Moji Agboola committed suicide after failing in her promotional examinations.

A 20 year old secondary student in Kwara State took some poison, eventually leading to her death.

Moji Agboola, 20, took some poison intentionally in Omu-Aran, Kwara State. It didn't kill her immediately, but her family took her to the church first for prayers and deliverance, and it only got worse.

Finally, at the hospital, she confessed to taking poison and then she died.

Why reason did she give for taking her own life?

Failure. According to reports, she took her own life because she had recently failed an exam in school. Secondary School. SS1 precisely.

With the circumstances surrounding her death, we start to get a clearer picture of Moji and the things that drover her to take her own life.

The average secondary school, SS1 student is around 12 and 15 years old mostly. We see a Moji who probably struggled academically in a class where she was probably the oldest.

We see a Moji where the much younger students probably called her "aunty" to mock her because of the old age. We see a Moji who probably felt not good enough because she had age mates who were in University, and a system which sort to remind her of how she was under performing at every turn.

ALSO READ:Man commits suicide after his wife leaves him

Will Moji be the last?

Probably not. As long as we live in a society where people who don't feel good enough academically are put down, instead of helping find solutions to make them better and more confident, more girls will take poison. More boys will hang themselves because their parents remind them at every turn how they are "disappointed in them" instead of working with them to help them find solutions.

Whats the way forward?

We need to begin to tech young people that failure is temporary, we need to make young people become more confident about their skills and not fill their mind with self-doubt with the ridiculous standards we set for them. We also need to stop trivialising depression, and help people get help.

Suicide is never an option, but first, we need to show people by our actions that we have better alternatives for them.

fuad lawal