*Anti-GMO products groups allege that it’s depopulation agenda
*Accuse Tinubu, Akpabio, others of siding with Bill Gates on GMO products
*Call on Nigerians to reject GMO seeds, crops as already done in some countries
*As NBMA insists GMO products approved in Nigeria are safe for consumption
By Godwin Ogar
Nigerians, in recent times, have continued to team-up against the use of Genetically Modified Organisms, GMO seeds and food crops in the practice of farming as well as food in the country.
This campaign is borne out of the fact that Genetically Modified Organisms are believed to be harmful, both to the body when consumed and the farmland in which such artificial seeds are cultivated.
Although those in the support of the use of the GMO, especially government agencies, have been putting on efforts to get the people accept what they see as innovation in agriculture, more Nigerians are beginning to view it as a corporate evil that is being sold to the world, especially Africans, for the personal gains of the promoters, and, so, calling on the government to reject it out-rightly and save Nigerians from a perceived ‘depopulation agenda’.
One of such campaigns for the use of only organic seeds for planting and organic crops for food is championed by a popular music icon, Eedris Abdulkareem, who wonders why the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had to fall into what he sees as a ‘depopulation agenda’ of a bio expert, a one-time richest man in the world, Bill Gates, when former President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan rejected the idea during his days in office.
Titled “Tinubu weytin dey sup?,” Eedris Abdulkareem, who is one of those Nigerians against the use of GMO products in the country, has released a song making waves on the social media, calling on Nigerians to rise up against the use of GMO seeds and food crops in the country.
In this new wave of campaign against the Bill Gates’ idea of farming and food security, the music icon tries to establish a link between the acceptance of GMO by the APC-led federal government and the prevalence of insecurity in the country, saying that they are aimed at causing people to die, thereby reducing the population of the country while further impoverishing the living and causing them to be reliant on these laboratory-created food products, thereby making the foreign promoters allegedly led by Bill Gates, to grow richer.
He did not just pass his message to Nigerians without quoting a renowned expert in the field who has been campaigning against the acceptance of the GMO by governments in Africa, Dr. Phillip Njemanze.
In 2024, Dr. Phillip Njemanze, the Chairman of Global Prolife Alliance, GPA, a non-governmental organization, sent a petition to the Nigerian Senate and sought the intervention of the lawmakers in what he perceived as a security threat to the country.
In the letter titled, “National Security Threat: Biotech Security Using GMO”, Dr. Njemanze criticized the National Biosafety Management Agency, NBMA, for approving GMO seeds for farmers in the country as he said “biotechnology companies allegedly sponsor terrorists to eliminate natural seed growers-farmers.”
Also, on the safety of the GMO products which the promoters want the world to rely on, Dr. Njemanze alleged, “Children and adults consuming products like cornflakes or cornmeal, made from this GMO corn, may face sterilization.” According to him, “the Epycete gene inserted into GMO seeds poses a threat to public feeding programmes; especially affecting children…Millions of Nigerians could become infertile, leading to a surge in fertility clinics, often sponsored by foreign biotechnology owners.”
However, this letter followed a lot of arguments, both for and against the use of GMO, and the lawmakers allowed the use of GMO products in the country, but recently, the call for its stoppage has been re-awakened.
Meanwhile, the National Biosafety Management Agency, NBMA, was established in 2015 by the NBMA Act to provide a regulatory framework to safeguard human health as well as the environment from the potential adverse effects of modern biotechnology, and to ensure biosecurity in Nigeria.
The NBMA, in order to achieve its objectives, has set-up what it calls the National Biosecurity Policy and Action Plan (2022-2026). The agency’s current Director General, Dr. Agnes Asagbra, has affirmed the safety of the GMO products approved in the country.
