By Obiabin Onukwugha
As the federal government of Nigeria continue to release GM products into the Nigerian markets, civil society organisations has again embarked on a nation-wide rally to sensitise the populace on the dangers of genetically modified organism (GMO) products.
The rally organised by Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and the GMO-Free Nigeria Alliance, held simultaneously across 10 Nigerian States on 13 December 2024, where thousands of stakeholders including farmers, CSOs, scientists/researchers, nutritionists, legal practitioners, medical practitioners, women and youth groups etc, called on the Nigerian government to ban GMOs and instead support and promote Agroecology as the viable alternative for food sovereignty and climate resilience in the country.
The rally, which took place 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 where serious concerns regarding the deployment of GMOs in Nigeria were aired.
The unanimous demands of the rally across the 10 states include for a ban on GMOs, including products brought in for food and food processing and as packaged processed foods. The coalition also demand 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.
Participants also carried placards with inscriptions; “Nigerians say no to GMOs”, Our food our Right”, “We Nigerians reject GMOs”, “Support Agroecology”, amongst others.
Speaking during th rally, Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, insisted that Nigeria does not need GMOs to address food insecurity; he stressed that the design of those crops does not support local economic growth but promote dependency on corporate seed supply.
He said: “In September 2024, the National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN) were reported to have said that they did not record any significant increase in their yields compared to the local seed varieties but instead, since the introduction of GM cotton seeds over 4 years ago, yield per hectare has remained about the same.”
“Also, the farmers noted that no other plant has been able to germinate on the farmlands where the GM seeds were planted, even after four years – 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”.
Bassey further decried the fact that farmers are not able to replant the GM seeds after harvest due to declining yields. They are encouraged to continuously purchase the seeds every new season from corporate entities. This reflects neo-colonialism and corporate capture of our food system -something we shouldn’t take lightly.
A 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 and more so, 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 – 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 added.
Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, Deputy Director at Environmental Rights Action (ERA), who coordinated the rally in the FCT cautioned that several other countries including Russia, Mexico, Uganda and up to 23 more have placed bans on GMOs – some partial bans while others have put in place complete ban.
She highlighted the recent ban of GMO corn in Mexico. “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.
“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,” she stated.
The Director of Programmes at HOMEF, Joyce Brown, noted the presence of over 50 imported packaged food products containing GM ingredients. “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.” She added.
Brown, who led the rally in Port Harcourt, Rivers State 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.
Brown also stated that against the argument by the government that GMOs are for food security, that Nigeria can feed herself effectively without them. “Research has shown that use of GMOs overtime is capable of destroying vital organs of the human body such as kidneys and the livers and they are linked to cancer and several other disorders.
“GMOs also contribute to several allergies being experienced by people. So this campaign is not only for awareness but we are also calling on the government to ban GMOs and revoke all the permits that has been granted to importation of GMOs because Nigeria can feed herself,” she said.
She emphasised that government should support agro-ecology and provide the necessary facilities to support farmers to make food sufficient for the country and not rely on foods that are poisonous to the people.
“What farmers need is more support from the government, access to land, access to credit schemes, access to infrastructure for them to process and move their goods from the farm to the market before they go bad,” she added.
Also speaking, Kentebe Ebiaridor, Programmes Officer of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth(ERA/FOEN), said GMOs are not beneficial to the local markets, adding that if it’s allowed, overtime, natural food growers and the local farmers would be pushed out of business
“Government must understand that GMOs are not benefiting us or our local markets. If this GMOs continue then our local and peasant farmers would go out of business.They only benefits a few elites who are not bordered about the consequence on the masses,” he stated.
He said the masses especially in the Niger Niger Delta are already battling the impact of oil pollution on their lands and as such can’t stand another disaster from GMOs.
Chairman of Rivers State Civil Society Organisations, Enefaa Georgewill, on his part said government should be responsible enough to go into agriculture for food security in Nigeria, saying that GMOs are only market for a few who wants to enrich themselves at the expense of the health of the people. He argued that Nigeria has fertile lands to grow sufficient foods to carter for the needs of her population.
Georgewill stated: “All we need is for our government to be more responsible to invest in agriculture. So if we don’t want to die to get money, if we have fertile lands to grow our crops, why the GMOs? It is unnecessary, it is wicked and we would not allow this GMO foods that’s targeted at our lives.”