SUICIDE BY SNIPER: A POPULAR CHOICE AMONG NIGERIANS - (PART TWO)
Sniper, the Viper
Towards the end of 2017, Aisha
Omolola, a student of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, committed suicide, upending
a bottle of Sniper insecticide down her bowel. Aisha's suicide sparked a lot of
controversies on social media, due to the mysteries attached it. She also
dropped a suicide note like Oladimeji.
But unlike the Oladimeji, young
Aisha had someone to blame for her action: her parents, especially her mother
who she said “made life a living hell” for her and considered her the “witch”
responsible for the family's predicaments. “I hope and believe that now that I
am gone, it will bring them relief and happiness,” she wrote in her death note.
Although it was rumoured that she survived the Sniper poisoning, findings
affirmed that she gave up the ghost while being taken to the hospital — just
like Oladimeji.
Meanwhile, barely a week after
Aisha's death, a disk jockey in Lagos, Seun Omogaji, popularly known as DJ
XGee, would also consume the Sniper insecticide, after an alleged unresolved
marital crisis with his wife. Ironically, he reportedly performed at a New Year
party on the eve of his suicide, excited and full of life. Yet, to the
perplexity of his fans on social media, DJ XGee would post a cryptic death note
on his Instagram page some hours after, asking them to “please rock white [to
his funerals] because [he] loves the colour so much.”
Flashback a couple of years,
somewhere in Ekiugbo community in Delta State, a teenage girl aged 18, Loveth,
would consume three bottles of Sniper, because she couldn’t meet JAMB’s cut-off
mark for studying the course of her choice, Medicine. This is despite the fact
that she had been assured of admission into a polytechnic by her father. A
moment after the father-to-daughter persuasion, she discreetly strode a few
meters from her mother’s shop, purchased three bottles of Sniper insecticide,
gulped them all inside her room and passed away.
In his final year at Isaac
Jasper Boro College of Education, Bayelsa State, Prince had a “little
misunderstanding with his girlfriend” which made him acquire a bottle of Sniper
on a suicide mission. This incident occurred barely two months after Aduba
Daniel, a student of Niger Delta University, drank a full bottle of Sniper
“because of his carryovers at school” — which instantly damaged important parts
of his intestines.
Orumah Efemenah, having spent
five years studying Pharmacy at the Delta State University, Abraka, was visited
by his father who had come to scold him for not performing well in his grades
much unlike his younger ones. It seemed this didn’t meet Orumah well, so that
he decided to end it all, washing down his frustration with two bottles of
Sniper.
Then, another news broke of a
secondary school girl in Warri, Delta State, Slimzy Jay, who drank Sniper
because her boyfriend broke up with her. The trauma of being pregnant at such a
young age was what allegedly led to her suicide action.
Although quite a handful of
suicide methods have been explored by many suicide victims — hanging, jumping,
electricity, laceration, etc. — what Oladimeji described as “rat poison” has
notoriously stood out over the months in Nigeria as the most widely adopted of
all.
In the past though, research
shows that Dane guns and Gammallin, an erstwhile agricultural insecticide, were
the commonest suicide agents; the trend seems to have taken a drastic turn over
the years, since Gammallin was banned, casting the spotlight on Sniper.
In a study by the Suicide
Research and Prevention Initiative (SUPRIN) conducted in Lagos State University
Hospital. Out of 66 suicide victims cumulatively recorded in 2018, only about
37.9 per cent committed (or attempted) suicide through conventional means,
while nearly 62.1 per cent bit the dust by consuming poison — often Sniper.
Suicide: Permanent
Solution to Temporary Problem
On the flipside, what is it that
makes people think life is not worth living anymore? What makes young ones, hale
and hearty, give up on life and hurry out of this world?
“Hopelessness,” replied Dr.
Patrick Ogbolu, Consultant Psychiatrist at the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital (LUTH). “It is about the strongest indication that someone will go on
to kill him or herself. When in the mind all hope is lost, then the essence of
living is lost. However, the question is, is all hope truly lost? Definitely
not. So, this is where depression comes in.”
Depression is a medical
condition, a psychological state of unhappiness or low morale, which lasts
longer than several weeks, and may include ideation of self-inflicted injury or
suicide. It is usually caused by a decrease in the level of serotonin, a
chemical in the brain which serves as a contributor to feelings of well-being
and happiness in human.
“Although, depression could be
genetic, or as a result of other chronic ailments such as diabetes or
hypertension,” said Dr. Ogbolu, “it is however often due to psychosocial
factors, such as demise of loved ones, stress, drug abuse, stigma, etc. In
other words, if five good things happen to a depressed person, and one bad
thing also happens, their mind tends to focus more on that single bad thing
that went awry, which makes them feel hopeless, and eventually suicidal.”
Meanwhile, some professions and
occupations pose a higher risk of suicide on their personnel. Healthcare
practitioners for instance, police officers, military personnel, electricians,
farmers, lawyers, etc., are at a higher risk of committing suicide. This is
because of the high level of competition, uncertainty and unpredictability
attached to their professions, exposing them to prolonged stress and/or
depression, which oftentimes culminate in suicide.
Nice exposition
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