By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi
No fewer than 2, 000 Bauchi citizens stand to benefit from the free distribution of hearing aides worth N6 billion under the Sound Intervention Mission of the Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation.
The exercise in Bauchi which commenced weekend to end Tuesday evening is in partnership with American Starkey Foundation, and the Bauchi state government that provided the logistics for the exercise conduct.
Flagging-off the exercise in Bauchi Sunday, the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo revealed that 10, 000 persons in the Northeast geopolitical zone from the exercise which begun with the Southwest zone of the country.
Obasanjo recalled that he once suffered 25 percent hearing loss without necessarily knowing it, saying many people unknowingly suffer from deafness, a condition he personally experienced during a meeting he attended abroad.
The former President explained that those who have hearing problem may not discover on time until it is diagnosed through medical checkup that could test their hearing capacity.
“I was 25 percent deaf, but I did not detect it until I was struggling to hear conversation during a meeting I attended abroad. I could not hear when someone in the meeting was talking to me”, he said.
Obasanjo added, “I insisted that nothing was wrong with my hearing, but the man asked me for a permission to test my hearing capacity. After the result came out, I had to ask than to check the hearing capacity of my chief security officer, who surprisingly was found more deaf than I was”.
“I would be flagging-off the distribution of hearing aides to more than 10, 000 people in the Northeast geopolitical zone, starting with Bauchi state where a number of 2, 000 would benefit from the exercise”.
Obasanjo thanked the state Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed for partnering with his foundation to help transform persons with hearing problems, and called on people of the state to support the present in the state in it’s drive to take development to their doorsteps.
Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed has while responding, commended the former president, and Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation for touching the lives of the common man through the distribution of the hearing aids, describing the gesture as very timely.
Mohammed observed that in today’s world many people have been disabled, not by any inherent capacity, but by preventable conditions and curable diseases that are fueled by poverty and other wants.
He further explained that many people lack access to modern devices that would improve their quality of life, saying it is disheartening that some basic necessities can deny people to enjoy their lives.
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