About 60 students of the Government Science Technical College, Garki, Abuja, have received training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and basic life support as part of efforts to improve emergency response skills among young people.

The training, organised by the City Club Abuja under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme on Friday, was designed to equip students with practical knowledge on how to respond when someone suddenly collapses or becomes unconscious before professional medical assistance arrives.

The initiative comes amid concerns over reported cases of sudden collapse and deaths involving Nigerians, including young people.

In April 2026, a 500-level student of Covenant University, Toluwase Jesutunmise, died after reportedly collapsing during a football training session. The university said medical personnel commenced CPR and used an automated external defibrillator after he was brought to its medical centre, but efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

Similarly, Nigerian boxer Segun Olanrewaju died after collapsing during a bout in Ghana in March 2025. An autopsy subsequently indicated that he died from sudden cardiac arrest, while a later investigation found that he had a pre-existing heart condition.

The incidents have renewed attention on the imp.

ortance of immediate emergency response, particularly in situations where trained medical professionals or emergency facilities are not immediately available.

Against this background, the City Club Abuja organised the practical session at the Government Science Technical College, focusing on basic steps that can be taken when a person suddenly collapses or becomes unconscious.

Speaking during the programme, the President of the City Club Abuja, Oluwasanmi Ajayi, said the initiative was part of the organisation’s commitment to giving back to society by providing young people with practical knowledge.

Ajayi said the City Club Abuja was a social philanthropic organisation whose members had come together to contribute to society through different interventions.

“The City Club Abuja is a social philanthropic organisation where a select group of gentlemen have come together and decided to give back to society,” he said.

He explained that the organisation had previously focused some of its CSR activities on supporting orphanages but decided to expand its interventions to skills development.

“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.

According to him, the organisation plans to extend the training to other schools, adding that its CSR activities are conducted every three months.

“We plan to extend it to other schools. We normally do our CSR every three months. We intend to make this a constant activity as part of our CSR,” he added.

Ajayi said the club, which was established in 2019, had also undertaken other community interventions, including visits to motherless babies’ homes and the provision of waste bins at Wuse Market in Abuja.

Also speaking, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City Club Abuja, Deji Adetuberu, said the decision to organise the training was influenced by the increasing number of emergencies involving people who suddenly collapse.

He noted that many members of the public lacked the basic knowledge required to provide immediate assistance during such situations.

“Recently, in our society now, we noticed that a lot of emergency cases have arisen by the fact that people will suddenly collapse.

And then the need, again, we’ve noticed that in those instances, simple, basic life support cannot be rendered because people don’t have the skill for it,” Adetuberu said.

He said the students could also become channels for spreading the knowledge to their families, friends and communities.

“Kids like this always have sisters, have brothers, have parents, aunts and uncles.

One child, the kids here about, could transcend down that value chain to like nine other people, at the minimum,” he said.

Adetuberu stressed that the initiative was not primarily about financial donations but about providing practical support that could have a wider impact on the community.

“It’s not about the money. It’s about the support that we’re giving to our immediate environment,” he said.

He disclosed that the organisation was also considering extending the training to other groups, including journalists.

“We’re not stopping. We’re going to NUJ and then go and educate them, go and enlighten them, go and teach them about such things.

You’ll be shocked the extent it will go to,” Adetuberu said.

The Head of the Cardiology Unit at the National Hospital, Abuja, and a member of the City Club, Dr Oladipupo Fasan, said the training was designed to equip the students with survival skills that could prove useful during medical emergencies.

Fasan said the programme was conceived against the backdrop of cardiovascular illnesses and cases of sudden death.

“As we all know, we are here today to educate young ones about quality of life support, what we call basic life support,” he said.

He explained that teaching young people could create a wider network of individuals capable of responding to emergencies and sharing the knowledge with others.

“We thought, okay, if we start with the young ones and we educate them, the young ones will grow and they become educated adults. Even as young children, they will have colleagues that they will also teach,” Fasan said.

According to him, the students were being taught how to assist an unconscious person before medical professionals arrive or the victim is taken to a hospital.

“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.

Fasan also raised concerns about cardiac arrests occurring outside healthcare facilities, where immediate professional assistance may not be available.

He said many such emergencies occurred outside hospitals, making public knowledge of basic life support particularly important.

“A lot of times, the statistics is under control. We don’t even know, because we know that most cardiac arrests happen outside the hospital,” he said.

The cardiologist also highlighted the importance of automated external defibrillators in public places, saying such equipment could support emergency response, although Nigeria was still developing the infrastructure required for wider availability.

Fasan further identified hypertension as a major cardiovascular risk factor in Nigeria.

“Recent studies show that almost 40 per cent of Nigerians are hypertensive,” he said.

He stressed the importance of greater public awareness, early detection and preventive measures to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.

For the students, the programme provided an opportunity to gain practical knowledge that could be applied during emergencies.

An SS3 student, Igwe Chimamanda, said she learnt how to respond when a person collapsed.

“Today, because of this programme, I’ve learnt basically on how to revive souls, especially, for instance, collapsed souls,” she said.

Chimamanda, who expressed an ambition to become a cardiologist, said the knowledge would be useful not only to her but also to people within her community.

“It will help me, not just in my surrounding, in my environment, the community, to be able to revive anyone, be it a family, a stranger, and be able to revive the person,” she said.

Another student, Awelewa Elijah, said the training could help students remain calmer and respond more appropriately during emergencies.

According to him, knowledge of basic life support could reduce panic and misinformation when emergencies occur.

He called for basic life support training to be introduced in schools across the country.

“It should be taught in all schools because this is where most usually happen,” he said.

The City Club Abuja said it would sustain the initiative and extend the CPR and basic life support training to other schools as part of its recurring Corporate Social Responsibility programme.

The Federal Government has assured parents, students and other stakeholders that there will be no increase in school fees under the proposed management arrangement for King’s College, Lagos.

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, gave the assurance on Wednesday at a news conference in Abuja while responding to concerns surrounding the arrangement between the government and the King’s College Old Boys’ Association.

Alausa explained that the agreement was designed to mobilise additional resources for the development of the school without transferring ownership from the Federal Government.

He said the arrangement would be governed by stringent key performance indicators to ensure that agreed standards were maintained.

According to the minister, the Ministry of Education had also established an implementation and monitoring team that would conduct unannounced inspections to ensure compliance with the terms of the agreement.

“There is no fee increase in this arrangement. It is part of the MoU we signed,” the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, said.

Alausa said the government remained committed to protecting the interests of learners while addressing the infrastructure challenges confronting Unity Colleges across the country.

He noted that decades of accumulated infrastructure decay could not be addressed immediately through government funding alone, making alternative funding and management arrangements necessary.

The minister urged journalists and other stakeholders to visit the affected schools and independently assess their condition before drawing conclusions about the controversy surrounding the proposed arrangement.

He added that the government remained open to dialogue with unions and would consider legitimate concerns that could improve the implementation of the agreement.

No teacher to lose job
Also speaking at the briefing, Ahmad assured that no teacher would lose their job as a result of the King’s College management arrangement.

She explained that affected teachers had been given the opportunity to indicate where they preferred to be redeployed, in accordance with the Public Service Rules.

Ahmad said the Federal Government was also implementing teacher capacity-building programmes as part of broader reforms aimed at improving learning outcomes in Unity Colleges and other government-owned schools.

She said the government was willing to engage further with unions over concerns raised about the arrangement, adding that legitimate issues could be considered for incorporation into the Memorandum of Understanding.

According to her, a committee had been established to review the agreement and address concerns raised by stakeholders.

She added that representatives of the unions would also be included in a committee responsible for monitoring the implementation of the arrangement.

Responding to the ongoing protest by education unions, Ahmad said the government could not engage effectively with workers while the ministry remained shut.

“With the workers’ protest, we cannot meet with them when they have shut the ministry.

“Normalcy must return to the ministry if the unions want us to listen to them,” she said.

FG seeks to restore Unity Colleges
Ahmad said the government’s primary objective was to restore the quality and excellence historically associated with Unity Colleges.

She acknowledged that the decline in standards had taken place over several decades and would require sustained investment in infrastructure, teacher development and other areas.

The minister said the government was exploring different public-private partnership models to rehabilitate Unity Colleges, noting that the model being used in Kano was among the options under consideration.

The government’s latest assurances come amid concerns from some stakeholders over the proposed management arrangement for King’s College and its potential implications for school fees, teachers and the continued ownership of the institution.

The Federal Government has maintained that the agreement does not amount to the transfer of ownership of King’s College and that the interests of students, teachers and the government would be protected throughout its implementation.

The Ekiti State Government has reaffirmed its commitment to improving the quality of teaching and learning as public and private schools across the state prepare to resume for the first term of the 2026/2027 academic session.

Schools in the state are expected to reopen on Monday, September 14, 2026, with the government urging education stakeholders to ensure a smooth commencement of academic activities and strict adherence to the approved school calendar.

The Commissioner for Education, Dr Olabimpe Aderiye, gave the assurance in a statement made available in Ado Ekiti on Saturday, saying the state government would continue to implement policies and programmes aimed at strengthening the education sector.

According to her, the first term of the 2026/2027 academic session will run for 13 weeks, beginning on Monday, September 14, and ending on Friday, December 11, 2026.

Aderiye urged school administrators, teachers, parents and guardians to take note of the academic calendar and ensure full compliance to prevent disruptions to teaching and learning.

She said academic activities would commence immediately upon resumption to protect the integrity of the approved calendar.

“Academic activities will commence immediately to safeguard the integrity of the academic calendar. The state government is committed to quality service delivery in the education sector,” the commissioner said.

She added that the government would continue to support initiatives aimed at improving students’ academic performance in both local and national examinations.

Aderiye said the administration remained focused on creating an environment that would support effective teaching and learning while encouraging stakeholders in the sector to play their respective roles in achieving better educational outcomes.

The commissioner also called on parents and guardians to adequately prepare their children and wards for the new academic session, stressing the importance of punctuality and readiness for school activities from the first day of resumption.

She encouraged all stakeholders to work together with the government to ensure that students receive the necessary support to excel throughout the academic year.

The announcement comes as schools across Ekiti State make preparations for the commencement of the new session, with attention expected to focus on effective classroom teaching, students’ academic performance and compliance with the state’s education policies.

The state government said its continued interventions in the education sector were part of efforts to enhance learning outcomes and ensure that students are better prepared for examinations and future educational opportunities.

With schools scheduled to resume on September 14, parents, teachers and school administrators are expected to make the necessary arrangements ahead of the new term.