Akpabio tells Nigeria's Senate suicide survivors should go to jail as bill advances

Nigeria's Senate approved a bill to decriminalise attempted suicide at second reading on 13 October 2026, advancing a measure that would abolish criminal liability for the act and create a legal framework for prevention, treatment and survivor support. The bill, sponsored by Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong of Cross River South, was referred to the Senate committees on health and on judiciary, human rights and legal matters. It has been before the National Assembly since February 2025, when it passed first reading.

The debate exposed a split at the top of the chamber. Senate President Godswill Akpabio argued that those who attempt suicide and survive should face prison, saying: "If you attempt suicide, make sure you die. Anyone who attempts and fails will go to jail." Ekpenyong countered that attempted suicide is a psychiatric emergency requiring medical intervention, not punishment, and that criminalisation contradicts the National Mental Health Act, deters help-seeking, prompts families to conceal cases and increases stigma.

No vote count was recorded. A majority of senators supported the bill, but the sources do not give a number, and it is not known whether Akpabio's position influenced the outcome. The bill is not law; it must clear committee review and a third reading before it can reach the president.

The same sitting dealt with two other matters framed as emergencies. The Senate urged the Federal Government to release Ecological Fund money for gully erosion and landslides in Cross River South Senatorial District, and declared worsening insecurity and mass displacement in Kebbi State a national emergency. It also passed a bill establishing a statutory framework for the Yusuf Maitama Sule Federal University of Education, Kano.

What the second reading shows is narrower than decriminalisation itself. It shows that a majority of the chamber is willing to send the question to committee, and that the presiding officer is not among those arguing for treatment over punishment. Nigeria remains one of many countries where attempted suicide is a criminal offence. Whether survivors are treated as patients or offenders now depends on the committees, the third reading, and whether the bill's public-health logic can survive the punitive instinct it ran into on the floor.