Attempted suicide is still a crime in Nigeria: What could change under the new proposal

• Nigeria is moving to decriminalise attempted suicide, with the Federal Executive Council approving an amendment to the National Mental Health Act. 

• The proposed reform would shift the response from criminal prosecution towards mental health care, support and rehabilitation, while the government targets a 15% reduction in suicide cases by 2030.

• The change is not yet law. The amendment still has to go through the National Assembly before attempted suicide can be formally decriminalised.

For years, Nigerian law has treated attempted suicide as a criminal matter, but that is about to change with the new proposal.

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved an amendment to the National Mental Health Act that seeks to decriminalise attempted suicide and shift the response from prosecution to treatment, care, rehabilitation and psychological support. 

Nigeria is setting itself a 15% reduction target for suicide deaths and attempts by 2030 while taking steps to change a law that can punish people who survive a suicide attempt.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, announced the decision after the FEC meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. 

He said Nigeria records more than 7,000 suicide deaths and about 300,000 suicide attempts each year, citing World Health Organisation estimates. 

He also put the number of people requiring psychosocial support annually at more than 450,000. 

Under Section 327 of the Criminal Code Act, attempting to take one's own life is an offence punishable by up to one year in prison. A separate provision, Section 231 of the Penal Code, also criminalises attempted suicide. 

Note that the two provisions do not apply in the same geographical areas. The Criminal Code operates principally in southern Nigeria, while the Penal Code applies in northern Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory.

For Nigeria, reaching that target will require more than changing one section of a law. It means changing what happens when someone is already in crisis.

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Someone who has attempted suicide is likely to be in a serious state of psychological distress and may need immediate intervention.

Sending that person into the criminal justice system can add another layer of fear to an already difficult situation. It may also discourage people from seeking help or make families reluctant to report a crisis.

A person who dies by suicide represents the most severe outcome of a crisis, but many more people experience suicidal thoughts, make attempts or require psychological support without necessarily appearing in official suicide statistics.

The proposed amendment would instead emphasise mental health assessment, treatment, psychosocial support and rehabilitation.

This is also an attempt to bring Nigeria's laws closer together. The National Mental Health Act provides a framework for protecting and treating people experiencing mental health challenges, while the older criminal provisions continue to punish attempted suicide. 

The reform seeks to resolve that tension.

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If the amendment eventually becomes law, the intended response would be significantly different.

Instead of automatically approaching a survivor through the criminal justice system, the emphasis would be on determining what support the person needs and connecting them with appropriate care.

That could include medical treatment after an attempt, psychological assessment, counselling, follow-up care and other forms of psychosocial support.

The idea is not that an attempted suicide should simply be ignored because it is no longer a crime. Quite the opposite: the reform is based on the argument that a crisis should trigger more care, not less.

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Although attempted suicide has not yet been decriminalised in Nigeria, the FEC has approved the proposed amendment; the measure still has to go through the National Assembly before it can become law. 

Until the relevant legal provisions are changed, the existing criminal provisions remain applicable. 

The reform also comes after years of advocacy and legislative efforts. In 2022, for example, a bill sponsored by former lawmaker Francis Waive sought to replace the prison punishment for attempted suicide with counselling and community service.

Removing the threat of prosecution could make it easier for people in crisis to seek help, but it cannot by itself prevent suicide.

Nigeria will also need accessible mental health services, trained professionals, effective crisis intervention, reliable data and sustained suicide-prevention programmes.

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The proposed law could change what happens after a suicide attempt. The bigger challenge will be ensuring that people can get enough support before they reach that point.