The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has condemned Senate President Godswill Akpabio’s reported remarks on attempted suicide, describing his reference to “seven virgins” as a cynical and offensive comment that potentially promotes religious stereotyping.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party also described the Senate President’s defence of imprisonment for suicide survivors as a disgraceful endorsement of what it called “an outdated colonial relic” that preferred to punish citizens who ordinarily require help.
While commenting on the National Suicide Prevention Bill at the Senate plenary on Tuesday, the Senate President had supported imprisonment as punishment for failed suicide attempts. In a video that went into circulation afterwards, Senator Akpabio could be heard saying, as he laughed, “why death may be attractive to some young people is that they have seven virgins waiting for them.”
The opposition party has taken strong exception to the Senate President’s remarks, describing it as “insensitive and disturbing.”
“We find the lurid remark made by the Senate President, Senator Akpabio, about ‘seven virgins’ particularly insensitive and disturbing. We condemn it, not only because it promotes religious stereotyping, but also because it trivialises an issue that is, literally speaking, a matter of life and death,” the ADC said.
The party also declares its support for the position that suicide is a mental health issue rather than a criminal act.
“The criminalisation of attempted suicide is a colonial legacy. These laws belong to an era when people experiencing profound distress were treated as offenders who, by trying to take their own lives, wanted to deprive ‘the Crown’ of the services they could render and the taxes they could pay, rather than as human beings in need of care.
“It is shameful that, when presented with an opportunity to reform this punitive inheritance, the head of the Senate chose to champion its preservation. Nigeria cannot continue to punish people for surviving a crisis that nearly claimed their lives, especially when those who handed us those laws have long abolished them,” the party said.
“A position that leaves a suicidal person with only the choice of death or imprisonment does not discourage suicide. It encourages it. To suggest that anyone attempting suicide had better succeed would appear to encourage people to devise more effective means of taking their own lives. We don’t think this is what the senators want.”
Signed:
Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi
National Publicity Secretary
African Democratic Congress (ADC)
