Nigeria swimmer takes on challenge to raise mental health awareness

Connecting one end of Lagos to the other, the bridge has also witnessed several suicides with victims jumping from the bridge into the waters, hence its symbolic importance to Samuel's endeavour. "This 3rd Mainland bridge has been known for a lot of suicide cases back thenm where people will just come at the end of the day once they think that oh, they are done with life...

Inspired by the travails of a suicidal friend, Akinrodoye Samuel has undertaken a suicide and depression awareness effort by swimming the across the enire length of Nigeria's longest bridge, nearly 12 kilometres, in Lagos under three hours.

A professional swimmer for over a decade with numerous awards, he began preparation for the campaign last year. "The idea is very simple, we don't just want it to look like the normal situation of talking about it on TV and then that is all," Samuel told Reuters.

Suicide and depression remain taboo topics in the country where a significant portion of its 200-million strong is said to suffer depression even with the dearth of data. Connecting one end of Lagos to the other, the bridge has also witnessed several suicides with victims jumping from the bridge into the waters, hence its symbolic importance to Samuel's endeavour.

"This 3rd Mainland bridge has been known for a lot of suicide cases back thenm where people will just come at the end of the day once they think that oh, they are done with life... this is just a campaign against that," Hamad Yusuf, an onlooker, said. Samuel is hoping his campaign would at least change that.

"We are doing this too so people don't just think that suicide is the next line of option for them... so no one should commit suicide again don't think of coming to the 3rd mainland bridge to jump in." (Writing by Ope Adetayo)

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