In a nation where emergencies often turn fatal in minutes, a bold initiative is changing the way Nigerians respond to medical crises — not with sirens, but with smartphones.
On Wednesday, June 6, 2025, the founding partners of Help Buddy Emergency Response Solution — Dr. Oluwakolade Abayomi, Dr. Ayodotun Bobadoye, and Dr. Ademolu Owoyele — paid a high-level visit to the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, to discuss a quiet epidemic that has claimed too many lives: preventable deaths due to inaction and lack of basic first aid knowledge.
The founders presented a clear and urgent thesis: Nigerians aren’t just dying because of poor infrastructure — they’re dying because we don’t know what to do in an emergency.
At the heart of Help Buddy’s innovation is a simple tool with transformative potential: the QR code.
Their vision? Train 50 million Nigerians over the next five years to become effective first responders, using the most common device in every Nigerian’s pocket — the mobile phone.
Strategically placed QR codes across public spaces will link instantly to emergency response guides. From CPR and bleeding control to spinal injury management, bystanders can access verified, step-by-step instructions — turning confusion into confidence in seconds.
“People are filming emergencies instead of responding,” said Dr. Ademolu Owoyele, Co-Founder and CEO of Harley and Rainbow Specialized Laboratories.
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“When you say emergency, people think of an ambulance — but that’s just one piece. The first issue is education. Almost 90% of Nigerians don’t know what to do. But more than 100 million own a smartphone. What if we could use that phone to save lives instead of streaming death on TikTok?”
According to the team, Help Buddy is not just another health tech app — it’s a grassroots movement. The solution is deliberately poster-driven, not app-based, ensuring visibility in local communities where digital literacy may be low and urgency is high.
Dr. Oluwakolade Abayomi, MD of Wellane Health, explained: “We intentionally delayed building an app because apps can be forgotten. But QR codes in every public setting — schools, markets, bus parks, churches, malls, offices — they’re visible and accessible. It’s about building a culture of response, not just pushing downloads.”
Beyond training, Help Buddy provides a life-saving tool: the ability to instantly locate nearby intensive care units or ambulance services with verified contact details — a feature that, in several recent cases, could have meant the difference between life and death.
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Dr. Ayodotun Bobadoye, COO of GET Consortium and Co-Founder of Help Buddy, illustrated the stakes with a chilling real-life example:
“A young entrepreneur was hit by a vehicle. Good Samaritans, not knowing better, placed him in a cramped minibus. His spinal injuries worsened. By the time he reached the third hospital — the only one that accepted him — he had died. That’s a tragedy Help Buddy was designed to prevent. With our system, bystanders would have known how to stabilize him, call the right ambulance, and get him to the right hospital quickly.”
The statistics support the urgency. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 50% of deaths in low- and middle-income countries could be prevented with timely first response.
Commissioner for Health Professor Akin Abayomi praised the initiative, calling it a “timely, innovative, and people-centred response to a longstanding public health crisis.” He acknowledged the potential of QR-based grassroots education to fill the gaps where hospitals and ambulances alone cannot.
He expressed optimism about a statewide roll-out and commended the team for not just focusing on technology, but on changing public behavior and building a resilient safety culture.
To deepen its impact, Help Buddy announced an upcoming Emergency Response Summit, to be co-hosted with the Lagos State Government. The summit will bring together healthcare providers, tech innovators, policymakers, NGOs, and first responders to push for a national movement toward emergency literacy.
Help Buddy isn’t asking Nigerians to wait for the government, or for more ambulances. It’s asking them to act, using the tools they already have.
“This isn’t about apps or algorithms,” said Dr. Owoyele. “It’s about using your phone — not to record death, but to save a life. That’s a cultural shift. That’s a revolution.”