By Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has reacted to the alert by the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) that there has been an illegal shipment of genetically modified (GM) maize into Nigeria.
The Director General of NBMA at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday had informed about the importation of genetically modified (GM) maize into Nigeria.
A statement issued to news men by the Project Officer of Biosafety and Hunger Politics of HOMEF, Joyce Ebebinwe refered to news reports that a vessel named Diamond Harbour, arrived the ENL terminal of the seaport at Lagos with 25,750MT of maize worth $3.7m at the current market value of $144.29/MT, two days after another vessel named Zola berthed at the same terminal arrived with 42,900MT of maize valued at $6.1m.
HOMEF expressed concern that the development might be one of several such unauthoried Imports of the product. “We are worried that this incident may just be a fraction of other undetected arrival of unauthorised foods into Nigeria, including those of the genetically modified varieties.
“Nigerians should be alarmed at these incidents because whoever imported these illegal shipments may have done so due to the preponderant attitude of government that Nigeria is open to GMOs and that there is nothing to worry about GMOs,” said Nnimmo Bassey, Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) adding, “This is an indication that more GMO foods and products may have slipped into the country undetected.”
According to HOMEF, Nigerian farmers could meet the food needs of the country if they were supported with extension services, processing and storage facilities as well as adequate rural infrastructure.
“What happened to Nigeria’s pre-shipment procedures? These GMOs should not have been authorized to head to Nigerian ports in the first instance,” Mariann Bassey Orovwuje, Chair of Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) asked.
HOMEF urged NBMA to unveil the importation of illegal maize and the Nigerian Customs to ensure that the illegal consignments are impounded and destroyed.
“NBMA should equally conduct market audits to ensure that crops, foods and feeds that have genetically modified traits have not been sneaked into the country,” Orovwuje said.
