Nigeria’s former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Wednesday relived how he has lived with diabetes for 35 years, lamenting that the disease had claimed the lives of many of his friends.
Obasanjo, who disclosed that he was diagnosed of diabetes at age 50, advised sufferers, particularly children, to manage the ailment well by maintaining good healthy lifestyle.
According to him, diabetes – if well-managed – is not a killer disease.
The former President, who was also a military Head of State (1976-1979) spoke at the closing of the Ogun State Diabetes Youth Development Camp held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The camp, which was organised by Talabi Diabetes Centre, trained 21 children living with Type-1 diabetes in the State on how to manage the disease.
He advised children to abstain from consuming sugar, foods with carbohydrates and regularly take insulin injection.
Obasanjo said: “I have been diagnosed of 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 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.”
Camp coordinator Dr Olubiyi Adesina said the training was organised to give information and encourage children between age 1 and 21 living with Type-1 diabetes.
Adesina said: “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.”