{"id":3015,"date":"2022-04-19T10:03:18","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T10:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erafoen.org\/?p=3015"},"modified":"2022-04-19T10:03:18","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T10:03:18","slug":"groups-commend-senate-as-it-pledges-to-enforce-strict-gmos-regulation-in-nigeria-slams-gm-crops-as-unsustainable-and-unsafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/?p=3015","title":{"rendered":"GROUPS COMMEND SENATE AS IT PLEDGES TO ENFORCE STRICT GMOs REGULATION IN NIGERIA: SLAMS GM CROPS AS UNSUSTAINABLE AND UNSAFE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"Reacting to Food Farm News made available to the public on Tuesday the 5th, of April 2022 that the\u00a0\u2018Senate insists on GMOs thorough regulation\u2019[1]\u00a0groups including GMO-Free Nigeria, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF),\u00a0Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Environmental Rights Action\/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA\/FoEN) and others have applauded the Senate for considering a bill to review the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) Act in the overall interest of protecting food safety and public interests in Nigeria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his reaction,\u00a0Barrister Chima Williams, <\/strong>The Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action\/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA\/FoEN)\u00a0said this is a welcome development, and the position of the Senate resonates with what they have been telling Nigerians and the Government for over a decade. \u201cGMOs are regulated because their safety is not guaranteed. There are good reasons why in Europe robust regulatory mechanisms are in place for GM food and GM crops. GMOs are not the same as natural varieties and they are also not substantially equivalent. If they were indeed one and the same thing, as the GMO<\/em> proponents claim, why are they modifying them and why have patents on them? The claim of substantial equivalence as touted by the promoters of the technology is an industry get-out tactic to avoid the rigour of proper assessment and regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dAccording to Williams, GM technology has undeniably become associated with profit-seeking corporations and rolled out as a tool to further consolidate their dominant market positions and colonization of our food systems and processes.\u201cWe must consider too that many things that scientists are trying to achieve with GMOs have already been provided by nature and by our local farmers through conventional breeding. We\u00a0should not accept the proposition that only GM Crops and GM food can solve problems in agriculture. Certainly, there is sufficient evidence to show that Non-GMO options and innovations have out-performed the much-touted GM options.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nnimmo Bassey<\/strong>, Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)\u00a0stated that \u201cthis is a huge milestone towards defending the rights of Nigerian citizens to safe food and environment. It is a step in the right direction for consumers and especially for smallholder farmers who are directly impacted by GMOs and associated chemicals, and yet have little or no knowledge or choice about the entry of these unnatural varieties into our food system or of their potential risks. We reject being fed with foods of dubious quality! We have always called on the Government to interrogate the questionable authorization of crops that would have irreversible impacts on our biodiversity, health, environment, and food safety. We applaud this intervention by the Senate in seeking to enforce law and order with proper regulation of Biosafety in Nigeria.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nnimmo Bassey added that promoting food safety and security\/sovereignty is a mandate that rests not just on the Biosafety Management Agency but also on the entire public and thus public opinion must be duly considered in decision-making processes concerning genetically modified organisms (GMOs). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that it should never be forgotten that Nigeria shares extensive land borders with other nations and GMOs allowed into Nigeria are invariably being introduced to these neighbouring nations without their knowledge or consent. Food Farms News had reported that the Presenter of the bill, the Senate Leader, Dr. Yahaya Abdullahi stressed why the Bill for the Amendment of the National Biosafety Management Act (NBMA) must be supported for more diligent legislation that would make our country zero tolerant to any hazardous product as related to GMOs saying our soils and the good health of Nigerians must be well protected with eco-friendly environment. According to him \u2018\u2018there have not been any conclusive findings regarding the overall safety of GMOs on normal lives and the environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Mr. President, my distinguished colleagues, caution must be our watchwords in the handling of the GMOs because even as we speak about sixty countries around the world population have partially or totally banned the use of GMOs\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Akinbode Oluwafemi<\/strong>, whilst congratulating the Senate for this bold step said, \u201cWe strongly believe that scientific integrity and social responsibility and accountability are not negotiable, and no technology should be exempted from these values.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went on to say that those saddled with the duty of protecting our food must look away from the industrial yield-output paradigm and adopt a more integrated, systems approach to food and agriculture that takes into consideration many factors, including local food security and sovereignty. He further said \u201cthere is a need for very effective independent, credible, regulatory authority to ensure rigorous oversight of GE crops, without the least hint of any conflict of interest. Priority should be given to rural communities, livelihoods, and the interests of resource-poor and marginal small-scale farmers rather than serving corporate interests and their profits.\u00a0GMOs will bring about seed colonization, distorting our food culture, and fostering dependency on local and international corporations. Instead of ensuring the well-being of the people, it only stands to benefit the corporations and their Nigerian cohorts.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Group lauded the decision by the Senate, presided over by Senate President Ahmad\u00a0Lawan, supported by the majority of the Senators in the passing of the Second Reading of the Bill for an Amendment of the NBMA 2015 and other Related Matters of 2022, for a more diligent and integrity test of GMOs. According to reports, speakers on the Senate floor were of the opinion that our environment\u00a0must be of priority\u00a0and better soil ecosystem management through diligent regulation of GMO seed varieties and other products must be upheld. They added that caution must be central in what we allow into our country through foreign partnerships in the interest of our environment and Nigerians’ health.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, <\/strong>the Coordinator for the Food Sovereignty Program for Environmental Rights Action\/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria and Africa and the Chair of the Agroecology and Land Working Group of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) said\u00a0\u2018There are enough reasons to hold back on commercializing GM Crops in Nigeria.\u2019\u00a0 She urged that the Senate should subject all the GMO crops and food approved into our environment to independent, transparent, environmental, social, and health impact evaluations. She said as a matter of urgency they should be subjected to stringent regulatory scrutiny, and they would know that the Group’s concerns about them were justified.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Groups strongly reject the non-circumspect modus-operandi of the National Biotechnology Development Agency, National Biosafety Management Agency, and partners to foist GMO crops\/foods upon undiscerning Nigerians via their introduction and marketing into our agricultural system and food supply chain. The Groups said they have valid concerns about GMOs, and they have compelling and cogent reasons to support their views even though they are constantly being vilified by the promoters of the GM technology.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Group, instead of engaging in open and honest debate, they have seen some scientists and promoters of the failed GM technology hardening their positions, lashing out at critics, and forwarding personal opinions or parroting corporate opinions and agenda. The group retorted \u2018We refused to be swayed by industry-inspired lobbying and spin and mere rhetoric designed to shut off debates. The groups equally urged the Senate to convoke a Public Hearing on the Bill to allow other Nigerians to add their voices in support of the path the Senate has chosen by presenting their concerns, views, and evidence before the Senate on why there should be stronger and more stringent conditions for admittance of any product that is unknown to the Nigerian households. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need truly innovative and culturally relevant systems such as agroecology that protect and enhance ecosystems, support smallholder farmers while cooling the planet, increasing productivity, and promoting food sovereignty. Nigerians should support the Senate in the move towards protecting our food varieties and ensuring that GMOs are not forced on our people without their knowledge of what they are planting or eating. We shall not fold our arms and watch our food and agricultural systems colonized and destroyed by profit-seeking businesses working with public agencies serving unabashedly as middlemen.<\/p>\n \t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reacting to Food Farm News made available to the public on Tuesday the 5th, of April 2022 that the\u00a0\u2018Senate insists on GMOs thorough regulation\u2019[1]\u00a0groups including GMO-Free Nigeria, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF),\u00a0Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Environmental Rights Action\/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA\/FoEN) and others have applauded the Senate for considering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-voices","category-era-in-the-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erafoen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}