The Bayelsa State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Seiyefa Brisibe, has said training students and teachers in emergency response will help reduce avoidable deaths and improve the speed of medical intervention across the state.
Brisibe made this known on Thursday in Yenagoa during a three-day emergency response training organised by FIRST Exploration & Petroleum Development Company Limited and the NNPC Limited/FIRST E&P Joint Venture, in collaboration with the Health Emergency Initiative.
The training equipped more than 100 secondary school students and 50 teachers from public schools across the state with basic first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other emergency response skills.
The commissioner said the initiative aligned with the state government’s efforts to improve healthcare delivery and increase life expectancy among residents.
He disclosed that Bayelsa ranked sixth nationally in health expenditure in the first quarter of 2026 but recorded the highest per-capita investment in healthcare during the period.
According to him, the state spent about N9bn on healthcare, while the state with the highest overall spending committed more than N36bn.
Brisibe said the figures reflected the commitment of the Governor Douye Diri administration to improving the health and wellbeing of residents.
“This is an investment that is here to save lives and shorten our response time to medical emergencies,” he said.
He noted that quick action was particularly important in cases such as cardiac emergencies, where the first few minutes could significantly affect the outcome.
Brisibe said the government intended to extend emergency response training beyond schools to public institutions and communities.
He explained that the next stage would target personnel from the judiciary, legislature and various ministries, particularly workers operating in public places, before the programme is extended to community leaders.
“We’re going to have representatives from the judiciary, we’re going to have representatives from the legislature, and from all ministries, most especially in public spaces,” he said.
The commissioner also disclosed that the Bayelsa State College of Health Technology had introduced programmes aimed at strengthening emergency medical services, including diploma courses in emergency medical technology, paramedics and physiotherapy.
He said the physiotherapy programme would also provide an avenue for traditional bone setters to understand when patients should be referred to hospitals and when certain injuries should not be manipulated.
Speaking on the initiative, the Executive Director and founder of the Health Emergency Initiative, Paschal Achunine, said the programme was designed to encourage members of the public to respond appropriately to emergencies rather than simply record incidents for social media.
Achunine said participants were taught first aid, CPR and other basic pre-hospital skills, which he said could improve the chances of survival for accident victims and people experiencing cardiovascular emergencies.
“Our expectation is that as opposed to the current practice, where people take pictures and videos and put them on social media when an emergency happens, we’ll see more proactive response, a robust response from young people,” he said.
According to Achunine, more than 30 per cent of deaths in Nigeria occur at the pre-hospital stage, making early intervention critical.
He said the organisation had operated a post-crash care programme since 2017 in partnership with bodies including the Federal Road Safety Corps and hospitals, providing deposit support of up to N100,000 for critically injured road crash victims.
He explained that the first responder training would complement the programme by ensuring that victims receive appropriate assistance before professional medical teams arrive.
“This is a further sweetener to ensure that not only when people are critical, but at the early phase of that pre-hospital emergency, more lives can be saved,” Achunine said.
He added that the organisation had also partnered with the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council to incorporate emergency health education into the school curriculum.
Achunine said approval had been secured for the subject matter to be integrated into composite subjects in primary and secondary schools.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of Corporate Services at FIRST E&P, Emmanuel Etomi, said the company supported the programme because timely intervention could determine the outcome of a medical emergency.
Etomi said, “During a medical emergency, road traffic accident, cardiac arrest, or other life-threatening incident, the difference between life and death can be measured in minutes.”
He stressed the importance of equipping community members with the knowledge required to provide immediate assistance while waiting for professional help.
Etomi described the programme as an investment in community resilience, saying the skills acquired by the participants could help transform people from helpless bystanders into informed first responders.
