By James Kolade
The former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has said that he once suffered 25 per cent hearing loss without knowing it.
Obasanjo stated this in Bauchi on Sunday when he paid homage to the Emir of Bauchi, Alhaji Rilwanu Suleiman-Adamu.
According to him, many people in the world are deaf without knowing it until they go for medical checks on their hearing capacity before it would be revealed to them.
He recounted that he was abroad and couldn’t hear clearly when someone was talking to him, and insisted nothing was wrong with his ears, and the man asked his permission to check on the ears.
Obasanjo said the result of the clinical analysis showed he was 25 per cent deaf.
“After my result came out, I had to ask the man to also check on my Chief Security Officer then but shockingly enough, he was more deaf than I was,” he said.
This experience, he said, formed the creation of the Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation, adding that thousands of Nigerians had benefitted from its ear treatment and provision of hearing aids in partnership with Starkey Hearing Foundation.
The former president said he would inaugurate the distribution of hearing aids targeting about 10,000 indigent people in the Northeast, starting from Bauchi State where 2,000 people would benefit.
He said the exercise, tagged: ‘Sound Intervention Mission so Nigerians may hear’ would be implemented under the Obasanjo Foundation.
Obasanjo further said that all hands must be on the deck to tackle the security challenges in the country.
Responding, Suleiman-Adamu said that Obasanjo’s presence in the state is a sign of his deep commitment to the development and progress of all regions in the country.
Obasanjo was received by Gov. Bala Mohammed, ex-Gov. Adamu Mu’azu, Sen. Abdul Ningi, and other top government functionaries.
