By Sade Adewale, Ondo

As part of its community service aimed at reducing numerous avoidable deaths on state highways, the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo, has held a stakeholders’ meeting with state security agencies to raise awareness on how to save more lives through emergency response skills.

The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Adesegun Fatusi, stated that the training aims to curb the high rate of avoidable deaths on highways, often caused by inadequate emergency response skills.

He commended the security personnel present at the event for their efforts in emergency situations but emphasised that more can still be done to save lives on highways through advanced knowledge in emergency response.

Fatusi added that the university plans to start training personnel from the Nigerian Police Force, Federal Road Safety Corps, Civil Defence, Amotekun, among others, to reduce the high incidence of avoidable deaths on highways caused by insufficient emergency response skills. “Our security forces are making commendable efforts in saving lives that could otherwise be lost due to delayed responses, and this should be acknowledged. However, it is disheartening that we continue to lose many more precious lives daily due to inadequate knowledge about immediate response actions.”

He stressed that this situation calls for “urgent and deliberate interventions to support the efforts of the security forces.”

The Chief Consultant to the University on Emergency Responders’ Training, Professor Olugbenga Akingbola, a professor in the Paediatrics Division of Pediatric Critical Care at Tulane School of Medicine & Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, USA, joined the meeting online from the United States. He outlined the benefits of the training and encouraged members of Nigeria’s various security forces to use this opportunity to enhance their emergency response skills for highway accidents.

“This is a commendable initiative by UNIMED. It demonstrates a university that cares for its host community and the state, as emergency responders’ training is crucial to saving lives.”

Akingbola urged security forces to “see this as an opportunity to learn, unlearn, and relearn new skills and methods in this field.” For over two years, UNIMED has been conducting this training internally for health professionals.

The university, whose motto is “For Learning and Community Service,” is now ready to extend this initiative to the public to help minimise avoidable deaths on state highways.

In attendance at the meeting were representatives from the Nigerian Police Force, Civil Defence, Federal Road Safety Corps, and several other agencies.