Retired Professor of Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Shima Gyoh, has expressed regret over his failure to follow through on efforts to repeal Nigeria’s law criminalising attempted suicide, describing it as a cruel and senseless law.
Prof. Gyoh, recounting his experience as a consultant surgeon at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Kaduna, in 1974, narrated how a patient who survived a suicide attempt was chained to his hospital bed by a policeman instead of receiving compassionate care.
He said the patient had been suffering from severe mental illness and hallucinations that drove him to attempt suicide.
Prof. Gyoh recalled confronting the police over the treatment of the patient and subsequently approaching the state Commissioner of Police, who acknowledged the law’s shortcomings but explained that it remained enforceable until repealed.
The retired professor said he had pursued the campaign against the law before handing it over to a psychiatrist, Professor Makanjuola, when he became Director-General at the Federal Ministry of Health.
However, he admitted that his failure to sustain the campaign was a grave mistake.
“My huge regrettable mistake was that I did not continue to follow it up and ensure that this primitive wicked law was indeed repealed,” Prof. Gyoh said.
He added: “I am ashamed of myself to think how many Nigerians might have suffered from this neglect.”
