Unusual suicide rate

The statistics may not be easily available to us as it is with such numerical details in our part of the world.

Suffice it to note however, that the rate of suicide in the country is becoming too alarming to be ignored: the current records are incomparable with previous ones, although we stand to be corrected.

It is hardly mentioned by the political leadership because of its implications on the quality of governance. There is a correlation between quality of governance and the love for life by the citizenry. This accounts for the seeming marginalization of stories about people taking their own lives when they can no longer endure the economic hardships. The media mention it and that is the end of it all.

Those who are unable to make ends meet sometimes consider the possibility of committing suicide, their death notes saying it all about the pressure they had had to endure until they could do so no more.

From newspaper headlines observers of the trend can justifiably be worried, although they are not in a position to order a study with a view to reversing the anomaly. Also worrying is the fact that the self-destruction cuts across all age brackets and even gender. That is why we must find out what is happening since experts abound who can undertake this important study for the good of the country.

It is unacceptable for a 14-year-old boy or girl to be fed up with life to the extent of seeking to end it all.

Recently, a teenage girl attempted suicide, her reason being despondency. She has completed school for a while now but has no job from which to draw remuneration for her upkeep. Her predicament is a general social malaise engulfing the country, a socio-economic challenge which solution can only be political.

In one of the senior high schools in the Eastern Region, a girl committed suicide towards the end of last year following which a number of teenage boys have traversed that path much to the distress of not only their parents, but society as a whole.

We must as a nation begin questioning certain unusual trends when they are noticed, as is the rising incidence of suicides. It does not augur well for a society when negative tendencies are considered normal and allowed to go without any attention to them.

It is heart-rending when we behave as if nothing was amiss with our systems. Many are they who under pressure would consider taking their own lives – something abhorred by both great religions of Islam and Christianity.

Ghanaians are going through some of the most harrowing moments in their lives as citizens of this country.

They are unable to sufficiently make ends meet and for the first time, their utility bills are competing with rents.

The rising suicide rate must be arrested immediately through an appropriate political response by Ghanaians as a whole.