STUDENTS FROM MANAGEMENT SCIENCES HOLD A WALK AGAINST SUICIDE

The Faculty of Management Sciences Students’ Association in the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) held a walk to draw attention to the rising number of reported suicides within universities in Nigeria on Monday the 3rd of June 2019.

The walk, which was tagged: “Say No To Suicide” is an initiative of students of the faculty, to discourage students from committing suicide following the alarming number of Nigerians, especially students, who have reportedly committed suicide recently.

Several complex factors lead people to commit suicide and these factors sometimes include undiagnosed clinical depression. While in distress, some may believe the only solution to their problem is to stop living and, therefore, they make the decision to take their lives.

Frustration from financial inadequacy, repeated academic failures, amongst other tragedies, often leads to chronic depression, which drives many students to think about taking their lives.

As a result of this, the Faculty of Management Sciences, led by the faculty president Adekola Francis, came out en masse to raise awareness on the plight of students and walk against this sad reality, prevalent within universities.

According to the president, the walk was organised to sensitise the entire university on suicide and to let them known that taking their lives is not the only option available.

“We in the faculty of management sciences got to know that suicide has become rampant within the student environment in Nigeria at large and even in FUOYE. So this has inspired us to take a bold step in walking against it,” Mr Fada said.

He advised that whenever people are in distress, they should refrain from thinking of committing suicide as the next plan of action.

Speaking to UCJ FUOYE, the faculty PRO, Kayode Adeyemi said the walk against suicide from the faculty is to try and change people’s minds on taking their lives, especially if they think that it is the solution to depression.

“News from other institutions, today, talk much about students taking their lives because of exam failure or relationship macabre which invariably should not be,” he said.

“Irrespective of the level of depression, they should not judge themselves based on their current situation,” he added.

“Whenever one is depressed, the solution is to relate with people around, sharing thoughts with them, discuss the issue that might be affecting them so that advice will be given and solutions will be provided,” he concluded.

*Please note, thoughts expressed by the writer and those interviewed are solely theirs. To read educated pieces and research on the link between suicide and depression, please start here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3195157/