Executive Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, has urged Nigeria to reject genetically modified organisms and “food colonialism” through agricultural policies.
He made the call on Monday in a compelling keynote address delivered at the national symposium on GMOs held at the Qualibest Grand Hotel, Utako in Abuja.
According to him, food insecurity in Nigeria and Africa is a complex issue rooted in underlying social and economic challenges, including farmer-herder clashes, banditry, poverty, inequality, inflation, and climate change.
He criticized the government’s approach to deploying GMOs as a quick-fix solution, pointing out that despite nearly three decades of GMO introduction globally, these technologies have failed to reduce hunger or improve food security.
Spotlighting the legislative and institutional framework, Bassey condemned the 2015 National Biosafety Management Agency Act and its expansion in 2019, which opened the doors to GMOs, gene editing, and synthetic biology without adequate regulation.
He bemoaned the overlapping roles of the National Biotechnology Development Agency and the National Biosafety Management Agency, saying their close relationship undermines effective regulation and promotes biased policy focused narrowly on biotechnology, especially GMOs.
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The activist explained that GMOs threaten Nigeria’s agricultural biodiversity and food heritage.
“GMOs represent a subversion of Africa’s food systems, perpetuating colonial control by concentrating power in foreign corporations and eroding indigenous knowledge and seed sovereignty,” he submitted.
Bassey warned that reliance on genetically engineered seeds forces farmers into dependence on multinational companies and undermines traditional farming practices that have preserved ecological balance and crop diversity for centuries.
Citing examples like the 2024 crisis faced by Nigerian cotton farmers and Tanzania’s success in achieving food sufficiency without GMOs by supporting local farmers and organic agriculture, Bassey urged policymakers to focus on strengthening local agricultural systems rather than embracing potentially harmful technologies.
He called for a decolonization of Nigeria’s agriculture through preservation of indigenous crop varieties, empowerment of local farmers, upgrading rural infrastructure, and strict regulation of harmful modern biotechnologies and agrochemicals.
Bassey also demanded an immediate moratorium on all agricultural genetic engineering to protect biodiversity and human health.
