The City Club Abuja has trained about 60 students of Government Science Technical College, Garki, Abuja, in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and basic life support as part of efforts to equip young people with practical skills for responding to medical emergencies.
The training, organised under the club’s corporate social responsibility programme, was held on Friday, September 18, 2026, and focused on how students could respond when a person suddenly collapses or becomes unconscious before professional medical assistance arrives.
The initiative comes amid concerns over reported cases of sudden collapse and deaths involving young people and others in Nigeria, highlighting the importance of immediate intervention during medical emergencies.
Speaking during the programme, the President of City Club Abuja, Oluwasanmi Ajayi, said the organisation decided to focus its latest CSR intervention on practical knowledge rather than financial assistance alone.
Ajayi described the City Club Abuja as a social and philanthropic organisation established to contribute to the welfare of communities through different forms of intervention.
He said the club had previously carried out initiatives including visits to orphanages but decided to introduce skills development into its CSR activities by teaching students CPR and basic life support.
According to him, the organisation intends to extend the training to other schools, noting that its CSR programmes are conducted every three months.
“This time, we chose to impart knowledge in these students and decided to teach them this CPR and all these kinds of things so that it can be useful for them in future,” Ajayi said.
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City Club Abuja, Deji Adetuberu, said the initiative was prompted by the increasing number of situations in which people suddenly collapse while those around them lack the knowledge to provide immediate assistance.
He said teaching students basic life-support skills could create a wider impact because they could transfer the knowledge to their parents, siblings, relatives, friends and other members of their communities.
Adetuberu said the intervention was not primarily about financial donations but about providing practical support that could potentially have a wider effect.
He also disclosed that the club was considering extending similar training to journalists and other groups.
The Head of the Cardiology Unit at the National Hospital, Abuja, Dr Oladipupo Fasan, who was among those involved in the training, said the programme was designed to equip students with survival skills that could be useful when a person becomes unconscious or suffers a sudden medical emergency.
Fasan said the training was particularly relevant because many cardiac emergencies occur outside hospitals, where trained medical personnel and emergency equipment may not immediately be available.
“We are here to teach these children on survival skills, how to help someone who falls down and is unconscious. What do we do? How do we help the person before the doctors come or the nurses come or before they get to hospitals?” he said.
He also raised the need for greater availability of automated external defibrillators in public places, noting that such equipment can form part of an effective emergency-response system.
Fasan further highlighted hypertension as an important cardiovascular risk factor and called for greater public awareness and preventive measures.
The training was also designed to help students remain calmer and respond appropriately when emergencies occur, rather than simply panic or wait for professional assistance.
One of the students, an SS3 student identified as Igwe Chimamanda, said the programme had taught her how to respond to a person who had collapsed.
Chimamanda, who expressed an interest in becoming a cardiologist, said the knowledge would be useful not only to her but also to people within her community.
Another student, Awelewa Elijah, said basic life-support training could reduce panic among students during emergencies and help them respond more appropriately.
He advocated the introduction of CPR and basic life-support training in schools across the country, arguing that students should be equipped with practical knowledge that could become useful in emergencies.
The City Club Abuja said it intends to sustain the initiative and take the training to other schools as part of its recurring CSR activities.
The intervention adds to wider efforts to improve emergency-response awareness in Nigeria. Earlier in 2026, the Federal Government also commenced CPR, basic life-support and automated external defibrillator training for staff of the Federal Ministry of Health, with plans to extend such skills to communities, schools, workplaces and public spaces.
The latest school-based training therefore provides students with practical knowledge that could complement formal education, particularly in situations where immediate medical intervention may be required before an ambulance, doctor or other trained professional arrives.
