The Chevening Alumni Association of Nigeria (CAAN) is targeting a critical gap in Nigeria’s road safety system through a community-led emergency response programme along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, as the country continues to record thousands of road crash deaths annually.
The initiative, tagged the Lagos Road-Safety Initiative: Enhancing Community-Led Emergency Post-Crash Response, will train 250 transport workers and community members to provide basic assistance to crash victims before professional emergency responders arrive.
The programme comes against the backdrop of 10,446 road crashes recorded nationwide by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in 2025, resulting in 5,289 deaths and 33,400 injuries. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that Nigeria recorded 36,722 road traffic fatalities in 2021, underscoring the scale of the country’s road safety challenge.
CAAN says the intervention focuses on the potentially decisive period immediately after a crash, when delays in accessing formal emergency services and unsafe attempts to assist victims can worsen outcomes.
The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, a major transport link connecting Lagos to the South-West and other parts of the country, carries heavy volumes of passenger vehicles, commercial buses and freight trucks. Congestion can complicate emergency access, leaving people already at the scene to determine what happens to injured victims in the minutes before professional help arrives.
The project seeks to turn these bystanders into trained first responders by equipping them with practical skills in scene safety, bleeding control, airway awareness, victim support, emergency communication and safe referral to health facilities and emergency services.
The training will be delivered through five workshops at selected locations along the corridor, with participation free of charge. The project runs until February 2027, with training scheduled to begin in October 2026.
An initial train-the-trainer programme in October will prepare 30 peer trainers, followed by community workshops between October and December and refresher training in January 2027. A dissemination forum and webinar are scheduled for February, alongside an evaluation of the pilot and the development of a toolkit to support possible expansion to other communities and states.
Beyond the 250 direct beneficiaries, the initiative expects to reach more than 11,300 people through step-down training and awareness campaigns. Six short learning resources in English, Yoruba and Nigerian Pidgin will extend access to the programme’s emergency response guidance.
The initiative is led by CAAN and supported by the Chevening Alumni Programme Fund for 2026–27, funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office through the British High Commission. A project steering committee comprising Chevening alumni from health, media, development and public-sector backgrounds in Nigeria and Tanzania will provide oversight.
Health Emergency Initiative (HEI) will serve as the technical and implementation partner, providing competency-based training, practical simulations, refresher sessions, emergency referral guidance and quality assurance. Sanitas Health and Development Foundation (SANHDEF) will coordinate project delivery, including scheduling, administration, activity management and reporting.
Kiitan Bolajoko, SANHDEF board trustee and 2020–21 Chevening alumna, said the project was designed to address the uncertainty that often surrounds the first response to a crash.
“By training and trusting the people already at the scene, we are not replacing the emergency services; we are making sure that when they arrive, the victim has already been kept alive and stable by someone who knew what to do,” she said.
Paschal Achunine, executive director of HEI, said delays and uncertainty during the first hour could contribute to road crash tragedies, adding that practical emergency response skills could be taught to people without medical backgrounds.
The project is designed to complement the work of the FRSC and the National Emergency Medical Service and Ambulance System (NEMSAS) by strengthening the initial link in the emergency care chain: the people present before formal responders arrive.
Its longer-term significance will depend on whether the pilot can sustain trained community responders, maintain the quality of their skills and provide a model that can be adapted to other high-risk transport corridors.
By establishing a network of peer trainers and developing multilingual learning materials, CAAN and its partners are seeking to extend the programme beyond the initial workshops and build local capacity that remains after the project ends.
The pilot’s planned evaluation and expansion toolkit are expected to provide a basis for assessing its reach and informing future community-led post-crash response initiatives.
