A suicide prevention advocacy group, Suicide Is No Solution Initiative, has strongly condemned the rising wave of online suicide-themed skits by Nigerian content creators.

The group, made up of volunteers committed to reducing suicide rates in Nigeria through public enlightenment and advocacy, described the trend as “reckless, insensitive and dangerous,” warning that such content trivialises a serious public health crisis.

In a statement yesterday, the Project Coordinator of the Initiative, Toye Arulogun, expressed alarm over what he called an “upswing of explicit suicide-promoting videos” produced by Nigerian content creators.

Arulogun said, “Suicide is a serious issue and not a joke. We have noticed in the last couple of weeks an upswing of reckless and insensitive online content by Nigerian content creators promoting suicide. Most of the contents 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 this year, Nigeria’s staggering statistics of a death by suicide every 33 seconds and an estimated 15,000 to 16,000 deaths yearly, 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.”

The Project Coordinator, who admonished Nigerian content creators to desist from this needless act, urged the affected brand owners to embark on enlightenment campaigns and legal action against recalcitrant culprits who associate their products with suicide.

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.