NGO ALERTS NIGERIANS ON ANTI DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

A non-governmental organization, every woman hope centre has alerted Nigerians over the activities of some civil society organisations to sue key regulators and promoters of modern biotechnology over a permit granted to an American multinational agro chemical and agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto on the commercialization of genetically modified cotton in Nigeria. 

Executive Director of the organization Edel-Quinn Agbaegbu who raised the alarm at a media briefing in Abuja, said the media needs to do much, in terms of vigilance, given that from the onset, in the papers they claimed to have filed in court; a lot of distortions, misrepresentations of facts and misconceptions exist in the information already dished out by the anti-GMOs, in preparation for the legal battle. This is quite unfortunate and an embarrassing development in Nigeria. 

Mrs Agbaegbu said “In our view, the first issue which ought to be settled on the subject matter centres on the degree of acceptability of GMO foods, globally, as an alternative approach to fight hunger. A ready answer exists in the findings of a survey conducted on Twitter by the Singularity Hub. The survey revealed that 71% of the respondents believe that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are needed to feed the world population of 9.7 billion by 2050. So far, it has been noted that 23% of the respondents; 1,338 in total as of writing, believe that there is a need to know more, while only 6% are against GMO”. 

She noted that The anti-GMO groups exhibited high level of bias and unprofessionalism by not stating the defence of Monsanto that it was anti-Monsanto critics that organised the tribunal and "played organisers, judge and jury". 

“What the anti-GMO groups want to do is an attempt to set Nigeria backward, to the era of crude agriculture. The world is moving to modern agriculture and Nigeria should not be an exception. Support for GMO and modern biotechnology has also continued to grow”. 

Mrs Agbaegbu called on the general public to concentrate all efforts towards ensuring adequate protection and preservation modern biotechnology through effective biosafety regulations, rather than pedalling unscrupulous concerns and perceptions that might imperil acceptability. “We should realize that the eras of distractions are gone and Nigeria must not be isolated from science”.

 

 It will be recalled that some major National dailies in the country reported that the Registered trustees of Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Women Environmental Programme and Initiative for Peace, Empowerment and Tolerance are seeking a declaration that the issuance of the permit granted by the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), to Monsanto Agricultural Nigeria Limited for confined field trial with genetically modified-insect/pest resistant maize in Nigeria and commercial release and place into market of Bt. Cotton be declared illegal, null and void.