By Obiabin Onukwugha
Environmental bodies have called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to place a moratorium on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their products in the country.
The bodies, Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Environmental Rights Action/Friends
of the Earth Nigeria, and the GMO-free Nigeria Alliance made the call during a Zoom session,.tagged “Caution in Science – Communicating the Risk Associated with GMOs, to mark the 2025 World Food Safety Day on Wednesday.
The theme for the 2025 World Food Safety Day is “Food Safety: Science in Action,”
The bodies stressed that Nigeria can transform its agriculture system in an inclusive and sustain-able manner by adopting
and promoting agroecology – which not only ensures increased productivity by improving soil health and biodiversity but also assures
economic resilience for our farmers as well as climate change resilience. Let’s be clear, GMOs are not the solution to food insecurity.
According to them, true progress lies in empowering our farmers through sustainable, inclusive practices that safeguard our land, our people, and our future.
In a press statement issued after the session, the bodies noted that there is no doubt, an urgent need for a food systems transformation in Nigeria to ensure the availability, accessibility, and affordability of food and to ensure resilience to environmental challenges, including climate change. They however, emphasised that “we cannot adopt a technology whose disadvantages far outweigh potential advantages and benefit only a handful of people—the biotech corporations and their allies.”
Speaking during the session, Executive Director of HOMEF, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, stated that a moratorium on GMOs, including a nullification of previous permits and approvals, is critical as GMOs are designed not to address food insecurity, but to consolidate control of our food and farming system in the hands of a few corporations/seed industries.
“This is known by the patent rights enforced on the products, which prohibit farmers from
saving, sharing or replanting the seeds. Even those without the patent restrictions, when replanted, yield poorly. This is a calculated attack
on Nigeria’s food sovereignty and must be seen as such. Seed saving and sharing is an age-long culture in Nigeria, where farming is about 80%
informal, with farmers being able to select and improve seeds using traditional methods and being able to exchange the same. It is worthy of
Related Posts
note that the Cotton Farmers’ Association of Nigeria in 2024 noted that in about 3 years since they were given the Bt Cotton to plant, they
haven’t recorded any significant increase in yields compared to the indigenous varieties; instead they have observed that their soils become
unproductive after they planted the genetically modified cotton”, Bassey stated.
Also, speaking on why a moratorium is urgently needed, Dr Ifeanyi Casmir, a molecular biologist and researcher, emphasised that there is no
evidence of long-term risk assessment conducted by the federal government on the health impact of GMOs. He highlighted that several studies link the consumption of GMOs to diverse health disorders, including immune system dysregulation, increased allergic responses, chronic inflammation and organ toxicity, as well as tumour development.
Dr Casmir also submitted that studies have found Bt toxins (Cry1Ab) in 93% of pregnant women and 80% of fetal cord blood, raising risks of birth defects, cancer, and allergies. He stated: “The fact that our regulatory agency -the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) cannot show any evidence of independent and extensive risk assessment conducted shows irresponsibility and lack of concern for public health.”
On his part, Professor Tatfeng Mirabeau, Professor of Medical Microbiology and
Immunology, stated that the federal government cannot overlook such a grave threat to our plant genetic resources especially as such contamination is irreversible. “Another critical reason why Nigeria should hold the brakes on GMOs is the impact on the environment. Bt Crops, for example, the Bt beans that were approved for commercial release in 2019 and 2024, respectively, contain proteins that, when released into the soil, destroy soil
microorganisms, leading to soil degradation and reduced fertility.
“There have been reported cases of pest resistance leading to the development
of super bugs and super weeds in the case of the herbicide-tolerant GMOs, which make up about 80% of all GMOs globally. The herbicides designed mostly by the same companies producing the seeds have been shown by studies to destroy not just the target weeds but also
beneficial organisms in the ecosystem, including bees. GMOs pose a critical risk of genetic contamination of indigenous seed varieties owing to gene transfer. For this reason, Mexico and a host of other countries have placed a total or partial ban on GMOs,” he said.
Furthermore, Barr. Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, ERA’s Deputy Executive Director, pointed to the fact that currently Nigeria does not have a policy on open market labelling, pointing out that as such, the public does not have the right of choice as to whether or not to consume GMOs. She stated: “This negates our right of choice and the right to safe food.”
BasseyOrovwuje further noted that there are fundamental flaws with the current Biosafety Regulatory Agency, including that there is no provision on strict liability, which should ensure that the holder of a permit for any GM product takes responsibility for any negative effects that will ensue. Another major flaw in the National Biosafety Management Agency Act is the lack of attention to the Precautionary Principle, which simply advises a halt on any process where there are threats to health or environmental impacts from the use of GMOs.
“Nigeria needs to critically address waste, which accounts for about 40% of the food produced. In the same vein, Nigeria needs to critically
address issues of insecurity/banditry that keep many farmers away from their farms, leading to reduced productivity,” she added.
