As the world is set to commemorate the 2023 International Men’s Day (IMD), a call has gone to stakeholders to seize the opportunity provided under the IMD initiative to celebrate men and their contribution to the workplace, their families and society.

The 2023 International Men’s Day will be celebrated on Sunday, November 19, with “Zero Male Suicide,” want to encourage institutions, organisations, and individuals to identify the causes of male suicide and try to find solutions to create a protective environment for men in all nations.

Sanmi Falobi, (IMD) Ambassador and Coordinator in Nigeria, in a statement, encouraged institutions, organisations, and individuals to use the November 19 International Men’s Day commemorative day to initiate activities that address men’s issues with a view of mitigating male suicide and creating an enabling environment for men to cope with the different challenges they face across the board.

Falobi said: “This engagement means ensuring there is a shared understanding of the need for intervention, open discourse, reduction of family, social & work-related pressures and counselling/mediation where necessary. The foregoing is imperative as a supportive environment is essential for the nurturing and development of men who are emotionally stable, healthy and resilient”, he added.

 “Bearing in mind the peculiarities of the Nigerian context and the enormous challenges that the Nigerian men are burdened with, it is imperative to build understanding around the issues that men face to mitigate suicidal tendencies in men.

“We call on those in management and leadership positions to catch in on the uniqueness of the day to celebrate and highlight the values of men within the structure of their workplace, especially in line with values that promote mental wellness and adapting to emerging challenges to forestall depressive and emotional tendencies that may lead to suicidal tendencies.”

As a way of providing an avenue for men to ease off the tension and the burden they face, Nigeria Expounding on the imperatives of the men’s day initiatives, Falobi notes further:

“IMD is not only an opportunity to celebrate and appreciate MEN that make things happen; but also to motivate/encourage MEN, to make things happen, for a safe, better and saner society, while ensuring that suicidal tendencies in men are mitigated.

Hence, as part of a series of activities to commemorate the Day, the Nigeria IMD coordinating team shall be hosting a pre-event ZOOM discourse to share perspectives around the topic, MITIGATING DEPRESSION & SUICIDAL TENDENCIES THAT MEN FACE on Friday, November 17, 2023, by 4 PM Nigeria (WAT) featuring experience-sharing discourse around issues affecting men.

The session, which shall feature robust discourse by a team of panellists including Dr Teelucksingh, IMD founder, shall be on Zoom Meeting ID: 839 3039 3700 with the Passcode: 804807.”

Championed in 1999 by Dr Jerome Teelucksingh of the University of West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago, and commemorated in over 80 countries, the uniqueness of the November 19 date is the opportunity to celebrate men and highlight the positive value of men to their families and communities and the world at large.

Independent IMD 2023 commemorative activities in Nigeria, among others, include the HE conference, the Premier Cool ‘share the pressure’ campaign as well as other activities under the coordinating framework of Innate Communications and the Initiative for Social Impact and Sustainable Development (ISISD) events listing @ https://bit.ly/IMD_Nigeria.