Organisations, Stakeholders Hold Nation-wide Rally Against GMOs
A grand rally organised by Health of Mother Earth Foundation and the GMO-Free Nigeria Alliance, against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), held across 10 States in Nigeria on Friday, December 13, 2024, during which thousands of stakeholders called for the total ban of GMOs in the country.
The participants which included farmers, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), scientists/researchers, nutritionists, legal practitioners, medical practitioners, women and youth groups etc instead urged the Federal Government to support and promote Agroecology as the viable alternative for food sovereignty and climate resilience in the country.
The rallies which recorded huge success in Rivers, Edo, Katsina, Plateau, Oyo, Lagos, Cross Rivers, Enugu, Jigawa States and the FCT, featured advocacy visits to state government houses and relevant ministries, organisations, where serious concerns regarding the deployment of GMOs in Nigeria were aired.
In his remarks at one of the rallies, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation, stressed that Nigeria does not need GMOs to address food insecurity, saying that the design of those crops does not support local economic growth but promote dependency on corporate seed supply.
In the words of Bassey; “In September 2024, the National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN), was reported to have declared that its members did not record any significant increase in their yields compared to the local seed varieties, adding that since the introduction of GM cotton seeds over four years ago, yield per hectare has remained about the same”.
Bassey said that the farmers also reported that no other plant was able to germinate on the farmlands where the GM seeds were planted after four years, thereby confirming the concerns regarding loss of biodiversity and soil degradation due to release of genetic material (proteins) into the soil which would not ordinarily occur.
He decried the fact that farmers are not able to replant the GM seeds after harvest due to declining yields as they are only encouraged to continuously purchase the seeds every new season from corporate entities.
In the words of Bassey; “This reflects neo-colonialism and corporate capture of our food system – something we shouldn’t take lightly”.
Also speaking, National Co-coordinator of the GMO-Free Nigeria Alliance, Barr Ifeanyi Nwankwere, noted that GMOs approved in Nigeria, so far are not currently being labelled, adding that Nigeria’s socio-economic context will not allow labelling to be effective considering how food is sold in cups and basins in open markets where majority of our people shop from.
Nwankwere noted that the biosafety regulatory system in Nigeria is not designed in a way that assures safety with regard to GMOs.
He said; “The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) Act has fundamental flaws including the lack of provision on strict liability, lack of adequate provision on the Precautionary Principle, inadequate provision on public participation in decision making etc.
“Another major flaw with the biosafety regulatory structure is the composition of the board of the NBMA with key promoters of GMOs e.g the National Biotechnology Development and Research Agency sitting on that board to decide on permits that agencies including the NABDA will apply for,” he said.
In Abuja, Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, Deputy Director at Environmental Rights Action who coordinated the rally in the FCT, said that Nigeria has all it takes to feed its people thus, the need to ban GMOs in the country.
She said that several other countries including Russia, Mexico, Uganda and 23 others have already placed bans on GMOs, adding that while some are partial bans, others put in place complete ban.
Bassey-Orovwuje highlighted the recent ban of GMO corn in Mexico, saying; “The courts highlighted the threats of the GMO variety to the country’s rich diversity of corn, stating that the genetically engineered corn posed the risk of imminent harm to the environment.
“Also, in South Africa, after a nine-year legal battle, the Supreme Court agreed with the Plaintiffs that South Africa’s Executive Council of the GMO Act had approved Monsanto’s drought-resistant maize without fully assessing its safety for human health and the environment, disregarding evidence from other experts”.
Also speaking, the Director of Programmes at HOMEF, noted the presence of over 50 imported packaged food products containing GM ingredients.
She said; “These products are abundant in our market shelves – different brands including cereals, vegetable oils, spices, ice-cream, cake mixes etc as revealed by a survey which Health of Mother Earth Foundation carried out across 10 Nigerian cities in 2018, 2019 and 2023”.
Furthermore, Brown added that GMOs pose serious health risks, highlighting a recent report by an Iranian researcher that GMO soy in a medium-term feeding test revealed significant damage to internal organ such as liver and kidney in rats.
Brown noted that so far, there is no evidence that the NBMA has conducted medium- or long-term feeding tests to ascertain the safety of the products so far approved for use in Nigeria.
The rallies across the 10 states unanimously demanded a ban on GMOs, including products brought in for food and food processing and as packaged processed foods.
The coalition also demanded a nullification of all permits so far granted as they are not backed by adequate and certified (sufficient) risk assessment and an investment in agroecology that ensures food security and food sovereignty while strengthening the Nigerian economy.
