My Friends Died Of Diabetes, He Didn’t Manage It Well, I Survived – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed how he cheated death from diabetes, a disease that he claims has claimed the lives of many of his colleagues.

Obasanjo, who stated he had been managing Diabetes for 35 years, said that many of his friends had died from the disease because they were unable to control it.

This was stated by the former President during the closing ceremony of the Ogun State Diabetes Youth Development Camp, which was held in Abeokuta, the state capital, on Wednesday.

The Talabi Diabetes Centre organized the camp, which taught 21 young people living with type 1 diabetes in Ogun how to manage their condition.

“Diabetes is not a fatal disease,” Obasanjo said while advising the young sufferers.

The Balogun Owu disclosed that he always carries his medications and testing kits with him to ensure that his blood sugar level is correct.

Despite being diabetes, Obasanjo, who is over 80 years old, indicated that he could participate in any activity, recommending young patients to follow the prescriptions given to them in treating the disease.

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.”