A SOCRATIC CONDEMNATION OF SUICIDE AMONG NIGERIAN YOUTHS Chukwurah Peter I. Abstract Socrates maintains that suicide is always wrong because it is an evil act that brings down the wrath of God. Every human life is a gift from God and so does not belong to anyone except God who is the creator. To terminate life is to act as a creator who has the right to do so since he is the giver. Notably, some researchers have found that suicide is a moral evil that can only be punishable by the decree of moral penalties like the refusal of the honours of a regular burial to the suicidal victim. However, employing a philosophical analytic method, this study denounces suicidal acts and applies the Socratic condemnation to possibly curb the increase in the suicide rate among Nigerian youths and Key Words: Suicide, Socrates, Nigeria, Moral Evil, Youths. Introduction Suicide as a menace can be considered an increasing existential reality and a contagious character affecting the youth of the 21 st century. Like a cankerworm, it is slowly and surely eating the lives of Nigerian youths. “History has reflected in its laws and attitudes at least a measure of the complexity of suicide. An act against the self, suicide is also a violent force in the lives of others. It is incomprehensible when it kills the young; it is awful in the old inexplicable in the physical health and glibly explained away in the sick or failed.” 1 Undoubtedly, there are many factors that facilitate the increase in suicide, especially among youths. Albert Camus rightly affirms that the only “philosophical problem” is the question of suicide. Accordingly, this philosophical problem has remained unresolved with probably little or no evidence of decline. However, it has alarmed society with its devastating effects, leaving for centuries, a continuous reflection without a possible solution to curb this existential issue. Due to this 1 Kay Redfield Jamison, Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, New York; Vintage Books, 1999, p.18