Kunle is a married father of two in Ibadan. For the better part of the year, he had been struggling. His business had collapsed. He had borrowed money from people he respected and could not repay it. He felt like a man who had failed at everything that mattered, and he had begun to believe, quietly and with increasing certainty, that his family would be better off without him. He went to church, as he had done every Sunday for 15 years. One Wednesday evening, after a men’s fellowship meeting, he stayed behind when the others left. The pastor noticed and asked him how he was really doing. That question, asked by the right person at the right moment in the right place, was the beginning of Kunle not dying.
Fatima is a university graduate in Kaduna living with her parents after two years of unsuccessful job searching. She had stopped eating properly, stopped leaving her room, and had begun writing in her journal about not wanting to be alive anymore. Her family noticed her withdrawal but told her she needed to pray more, trust more, and be more grateful. She feared that disclosing her thoughts would make her a lesser Muslim. She went to the mosque on Fridays just to satisfy her parents. The imam delivered a Friday jumat sermon that focused on patience, resilience and going through challenges. The sermon was comforting, and she began to find hope again.
Emmanuel is a chorister in a Pentecostal church in Lagos who had been quietly dependent on alcohol for six years following the death of his wife. The drinking had become his private management of grief he had never properly processed in a church culture where showing such prolonged pain felt like a failure of faith. When his thoughts turned to suicide following the loss of his job, he told no one in the church. He feared judgement. He feared being prayed over and sent home with Bible readings, a fasting schedule and an exhortation to be stronger in faith. He felt somehow it would be viewed as being weak in faith and blamed. So, he decided not to voice his concerns even though he felt lost and that he simply had nothing to continue living for.
Discussion
In Nigeria, as across much of sub-Saharan Africa, faith communities are central social institutions. The church, the mosque, and the traditional religious gathering are places where people already go on ordinary days and socialise. These places take on added salience because they are also the first point of call in moments of crisis. Several studies consistently show that in many African contexts, religious leaders are the first point of contact for people experiencing mental health difficulties, often long before any clinical service is approached. This is a reality to be taken seriously and built upon.
Religious organisations have consistent, repeated contact with large numbers of people across the full span of life. They carry moral authority and trust. They also have existing structures through pastoral care, Jumuah gatherings, small groups, community visiting, youth programmes, men and women groupings, etc., that can be adapted for mental health outreach without requiring entirely new infrastructure. They are also easily present in communities, particularly rural and low-income communities, where no other structured support exists.
How can religious organisations help?
? Demystify the topic and promote open discussions around mental health and suicide prevention. Such openness will encourage people to speak freely.
? Training faith leaders in mental health first aid: Training faith leaders in the basics of mental health first aid is one of the highest-leverage interventions available. Asido Foundation holds comprehensive workshops for religious leaders that have proven effective in improving their psychological first aid expertise as well as confidence.
? Creating safe spaces for honest disclosure: Creating confidential pastoral and counselling structures where people know their disclosure will be met with compassion rather than judgement or gossip can go a long way towards preventing suicide.
? Building referral pathways to professional services: Religious organisations should establish clear and smooth referral relationships with local mental health services, hospitals, and health care workers so that a pastor or imam who sits with someone in distress after Friday Jumuah or Sunday church service has a number to call, a name to give, and a person in the professional system who is expecting that referral.
? Establishing bereavement and grief support structures.
? Engaging men through existing fellowship and brotherhood structures: Men are significantly less likely to disclose suicidal thoughts than women and are at considerably higher risk of dying by suicide. Men’s fellowship groups in churches and the brotherhood structures of mosque communities can be used to foster mental health promotion.
? Involving young people in peer mental health advocacy as well as during youth camps.
Conclusion:
The most powerful suicide prevention resource in many Nigerian communities is not a clinic or a helpline. It is YOU. The person who notices, who stays, who asks the question that nobody else has thought to ask. And encourages engagement with professional mental health services without shame or stigma.