Comrade Ufezime Nelson Ubi has warned that allowing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Nigeria will harm the soil and reduce the country’s power over farming, stressing that GMOs may look like progress, but it is not real progress for the country.
Ubi made this known on Sunday through an opinion piece published in Sahara Reporters titled ‘GMO: A death sentence to Nigeria’s soil and sovereignty’.
Recall that last year, when billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates visited Nigeria, he called for Africa to embrace GMOs to solve the food and hunger crisis on the continent.
Also, in January 2015, when Gates and his then-wife Melinda were interviewed by EURACTIV about the use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture in the developing world, Melinda said, “We think you need to have both types of seeds, natural seeds and also GMOs, but we think ultimately it is up to Africans to decide.”
Although it is reported that the Nigerian government has approved GMOs, each variety must be approved by at least five regulatory authorities, which could take two to three years, a development Gates sees as counter-productive.
Following these developments, Ubi criticised President Bola Tinubu and the Director General of NAFDAC for approving GMOs, a technology that he noted many scientists around the world do not agree with and have warned about possible dangers to human health and the environment.
He described Tinubu’s approval for GMOs as an act of national recklessness that must be reversed without delay, adding, “No responsible leader should sign away the country’s seed sovereignty for the lure of foreign technology that comes with hidden costs.”
While calling for the removal of NAFDAC’s boss, saying she is working for foreign interests instead of protecting Nigerian farmers, he urged Nigerian leaders to focus on improving natural farming methods instead of promoting GMOs.
The activist stated that GMOs are ways for foreign companies to make money and control farmers by making them sign agreements that stop them from saving seeds for the next season, which he added will destroy the old farming tradition in Nigeria, where farmers keep some of their harvest as seeds for the next planting.
Though Gates had dismissed safety fears over genetically engineered food, saying that if it was unsafe, the US would not have approved it for its citizens, Ubi stressed that it poses great danger to Nigerian people and economy.
“This is not about feeding Africans — it is about controlling what Africans eat, what they plant, and ultimately, how their economies function,” he stated.
Accusing Gates of promoting GMO seeds and chemical farming in African countries, he enjoined Nigerians to reject GMO seeds.
