Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has explained how he
escaped being killed by Diabetes, a disease he said killed many of his friends.
Obasanjo, who said he had been managing Diabetes for the
past 35 years, said many of his friends died of the disease because they were
unable to manage the disease.
The former President said this on Wednesday during the
closing ceremony of the Ogun State Diabetes Youth Development Camp, held in
Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The camp, organised by Talabi Diabetes Centre, had trained
21 young people said to be living with type-1 Diabetes in Ogun on how to manage
the disease.
While advising the young patients, Obasanjo maintained that
“Diabetes is not a killer disease.”
The Balogun Owu revealed that he always goes around with his
drugs and testing kits to ensure he has the right blood sugar level.
At over 80 years old, Obasanjo stated that he could engage
in every activity in spite of being diabetic, advising the young patients to
follow prescriptions given to them in managing the ailment.
He added, “I have been diagnosed of diabetes for more than
35 years now and here I am, 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 of diabetes, a number of my friends
have died and the reason is because they just did not manage their diabetes the
way they should manage it.
“It does not matter whether you are type one or type two, so
far there is no cure for Diabetes, maybe there will be cure before I die. But,
I pray that there will be cure before you die.
“You have to understand the type of food you should eat, you
must completely abstain from sugar. The amount of carbohydrates that you take
must be watched.
“Don’t miss your drugs, in your own case, your insulin
injection. I take my drugs along with me everywhere I go and I always check my
blood sugar level regularly.
“Don’t let anybody put fear in your minds, Diabetes has no
cure for now, but it can be managed.”
In his remarks, the Coordinator, Dr Olubiyi Adesina, said the
camp was organised to give information and encourage young people between age 1
and 21 living 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
close 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.
“Now we have organized this program for young people living
with type-1 diabetes to give them a lot of information on how to manage
themselves.
“Type-1 diabetes is a lifelong disease and we tend to see it
in young children and it requires daily insulin injection for life for them to
survive. If they stop giving them this injection, they are likely to go into a
coma in a few days and eventually die. So, we have brought them together and
give them the necessary information needed for survival.”
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