Phillip Njemanze, a medical practitioner and chairman of Global Prolife Alliance (GPA), a health, legal and environmental outfit, said in Owerri, Imo State, that his agency along with other environmental stakeholders like the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HMEF), Friends of the Earth (FoE), and several farmers associations, representing over 14 million Nigerians, were advance reasons why Nigeria should not adopt the genetically motivated organism (GMO) foods concept.
According to Njemanze, they are appalled by the response of Charla Lord, the Monsanto spokesman, which he said was a clear manifestation of the condescending, deceptive and racist attitude of Monsanto towards African countries.
He said Monsanto believed that Africans were not abreast with the current scientific literature, “So, we will accept nonsense out of ignorance. Well, this is not the case as they will see.”
Njemanze defined genetically modified organisms (plants, animals or microorganisms) “as those in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination.” The technology is often called “modern biotechnology” or “gene technology” or “genetic engineering.” It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between nonrelated species. Foods produced from or using GMO are often called GMOs foods.
He said there are at least 10 reasons why Nigeria should not adopt GMOs food; stating that the issuance of Food Safety permits to Monsanto by the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) on May 1, 2016 are illegal because the transaction was unofficial and occurred under shoddy circumstances, and they constitute gross violations of extant laws in Nigeria.
The Global Prolife Alliance chairman said NBMA is not authorized under the laws of Nigeria to certify foods as safe for release into the market under the NBMA Act 2015; stating that the certification meant in the Act, is for procedural processes that involve methods of biotechnology, not the safety of the food itself; adding that food safety certifications (GMOs or not) are all in the purview of the National Agency for Food, Drug and Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
He said the National Biosafety Agency Act 2015 is unconstitutional and very defective, as it breaches the fundamental precautionary principles of a regulatory body, which include independence and right to appeal decisions.
“There is no section of the NBMA Act that mandates independent research by institutions, universities and laboratories to validate the research presented by the Biotechnology companies like Monsanto, Bayer or Syngenta. The NBMA Act only requires 270 days after publication in two national dailies as notification that a GMOs crop would go to the market place. No independent research is required. If any studies are to be done, they would be funded by the respondent,” Njemanze stated.
He alleged that NBMA is not staffed or equipped for validation of the studies in its role as a regulatory agency; adding that there is no right of appeal of the decisions of the NBMA board by members of the public or stakeholders; although he said biotechnology companies have right to appeal.
“The fact that there is a lack of Right to Fair Hearing for all Nigerians, is a violation under Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Thus, NBMA is defective and unconstitutional,” Njemanze said.
Another reason the GPA chairman advanced why Nigeria should not adopt the GMOs foods concept is that GMOs crops would not increase yield potential, and hence not solve the food crisis; wondering why Monsanto pretends that they were not aware of recent findings that GMO corn does not increase crop yields, citing a recent work published in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability by Jack Heinemann et al, a professor of genetics at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, which found that in the United States from 1986 to 2011, the average yields of GMO corn was lower that corn yields over the same period in Western Europe, where GMO corn are not allowed.
“African countries should follow the European model that has prevented the planting of GMO corn and other GMOs crops, and not the US model. There is nothing to be gained for the farmer by planting GMO crops,” said Njemanze.
He also said GMO foods are unhealthy, as the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) urges doctors not to prescribe GMOs diets for patients, citing animal studies showing organ damage, gastrointestinal and immune system disorders, accelerated aging, and infertility. Human studies show how GMOs foods can leave genetic material inside the human body causing long-term damage. Genes inserted into GMO soy, maize, yellow cassava (provitamin), yellow yam, tomatoes (deceptively called hybrid) can transfer into DNA of bacteria in the gut. The toxic insecticide produced by GMO corn was found in the blood of pregnant women and their unborn foetuses. Milk from treated cows has more of the hormone IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1), which has been linked to cancer, he added.
He equally alleged that GMOs will contaminate the environment in Nigeria forever, as GMOs cross pollinate and their seeds can travel tens to hundreds of miles away, making it impossible to fully clean up contaminated gene pool. A small GMO crop plantation could cause a contamination ten times the entire Niger-Delta oil spills and can never be cleaned off. Njemanze alleged that GMO foods illegally grown in Nigeria were unfit for human consumption because of pesticide use, quoting the European Food Safety Authority that detected a 460 times above lethal limits of a very toxic cancerogenic pesticide – dichlorvos.
While he added that GMOs food can create monster humans because of gene mixtures; claiming that overtime, very disastrous consequences of GMO foods are emerging; and that the mixing of genes from totally unrelated species through genetic engineering is unleashing unpredictable side effects, including new toxins, allergens, carcinogens, nutritional deficiencies and possibly Monster humans from birth defects.
He raised an alarm that, to this day, the BioCassava project was still distributing the yellow cassava seeds in Nigeria and peddling scientific lies; adding that GMO crops harms the environment and natural ecosystem of plants and animals; while they are a danger to national security.
