Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Wednesday, revealed how he has been battling diabetes for the past 35 years.
The elder statesman while sharing the 35 years journey noted that the ailment has killed many of his friends.
Obasanjo stated this during the closing ceremony of the Ogun State Diabetes Youth Development Camp, held in Abeokuta, Ogun state.
The programme where the former President shared his thought was organized by Talabi Diabetes Centre to train twenty-one children living with type-1 diabetes in the state on how to manage the ailment.
Obasanjo advised the kids to manage the ailment well by living a good healthy lifestyle, insisting that diabetes is not a killer disease.
The elder statesman called on the affected children to stay away from consuming sugar, foods with carbohydrates and always take their insulin injection to manage the disease well.
He said, “I have been diagnosed with diabetes for more than 35 years now and here I am, I’m still going about, I’m still jumping up and down, I’m still doing many things many people of my age cannot do.”
“Since I was diagnosed with diabetes, a number of my friends have died and the reason is that they just did not manage their diabetes the way they should manage it.”
Obasanjo who emphasised that there is no cure for the ailment, prayed for a cure before he dies.
“It does not matter whether you are type one or type two, so far there is no cure for diabetes, maybe there will be a cure before I die, but I pray that there will be a cure before you die.”
“You have to understand the type of food you should eat, you must completely abstain from sugar. The number of carbohydrates that you take must be watched.
“Don’t miss your drugs, in your case, your insulin injection, I take my drugs along with me everywhere I go and I always check my blood sugar level regularly.”
The former president advised people leaving with diabetes not to leave in fear.
“Don’t let anybody put fear in your minds, diabetes, has no cure for now, but it can be managed.”
The coordinator of the camp, Olubiyi Adesina while speaking said the camp was organised to encourage young people between ages 1 and 21 to live with type-1 diabetes.
Adesina added, “These young people are on insulin injection depending on the dose, it is costly. Averagely, each one of them will be spending closely to N20,000 a month on insulin injection alone. And that’s for the rest of their lives, so, it is very expensive to manage this.”
