75 percent of disease cases are in Nigeria – Yakubu Gowon

Gowon also urged the government to give attention to the disease in order to help deal with it.

He made the comments in Abuja during the launch of a book by Babajide Olowodola in support of sickle cell intervention.

“The government should do whatever they can and give attention to this particular disease in order to help deal with it and the first thing that is important is, educating the people, to make sure there is good advice given to people not just to say O positive, O negative, but make sure you do not match-make people. With this at the back of our minds, it will reduce the danger of the disease,” Gowon said according to The Nation.

“In the book, the author said, ‘we have gone through a long night with our last born who suffers the sickle cell disease and we didn’t think another Nigerian should be allowed to go through that experience alone.

“That is why we thought that the best way to celebrate this 63rd birthday, is to give back to society, to give back to humanity, to be a blessing to another family who is afflicted, who is suffering from the sickle cell disease’.

“I felt very sad they had to go through all this. That determined me to come and chair this occasion. He is doing this not only to celebrate his 63rd birthday, but to be able to do something for those who are suffering from this disease – sickle cell disease.

“He didn’t want anything for himself but for his son and all these young people who are diagnosed with this disease. I think this is very humble indeed and I hope and pray that a lot of people give a lot for this particular cause,” he added.

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Sickle cell disease is a group of disorders that affects hemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body.