Safety, NBMA and GMO controversy
The National Biosafety Management Agency’s recent triumph over the anti-GMO crusaders in a lawsuit calls for the need to allow NBMA continue regulating the modern biotechnology in the country.
In countries where modern biotechnology is embraced, it is common to see regulatory mechanisms that guarantee safety of humans, plants and animals by sustainable use of the technology, while adequately harnessing its potentials for boosting food production, improving the welfare of farmers and general economic advancement.
NBMA has existed for virtually four years but criticisms from civil societies led by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has denounced its working system many times.
In September 2017, HOMEF filed a court case against NBMA and others for giving approval for the Commercial Release of Bt. cotton and the Confined Field Trial (CFT) of maize in 2016 on a Sunday.
The pertinent question here is: Does the law forbid an individual or agency to work or not to work on a particular day? The constitution of the country is mute on this. This begs another question: Why would decisions of public interest be considered unlawful or felonious because they were made on a weekend?
Undoubtedly, there have been elections conducted on Sundays and Saturdays in this country and they were for the interest of the general public.
Moreover, government decisions always have an effective date, the date which was contested in court by the anti-activists is the effective date of the permit. Not necessarily the date it was signed.
After many sittings, a Justice of the Federal High Court Abuja, acquitted NBMA of any human rights violations and dismissed the action taken by HOMEF on grounds that it was statute barred as the court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain it.
NBMA was established and saddled with the sole responsibility of regulating modern biotechnology. The Federal Government deemed it fit to establish NBMA so as to ensure safety of the use and handling of GMOs.
The Act establishing NBMA came into force in April 2015 with the appointment of a Director General/ Chief Executive Officer who has manned the agency since its inception.
The agency, as duties, has used a part of variety its of channels to educate Nigerians on its preparedness to execute its mandate to the letter as well as acquaint potential importers and traders of GMOs on guidelines of the NBMA Act 2015.
It has also employed various means to allay any panic, misgivings or reservations of the public in relation to modern biotechnology practice. Inadequate information and dearth of right information on biotechnology has made people question its potentials.
As a regulator, it has assured the public severally that only safe GM products will be allowed into the market as the agency will never stoop so low as to compromise standards and endanger humanity, plants or the environment.
The motive behind its establishment was not to frustrate those dealing with GMOs in the society but to make sure they are safe for the consumers.
It is an unimpeachable fact that science and technology are drivers of change. Biotechnology was developed as a tool to enhance the scope and scale of industrial agriculture.
For instance, it is geared towards remedying or cushioning the many dire challenges of climate change especially in the agricultural sector but, the interminable miscommunication of modern biotechnology over time has inculcated skepticism in the minds of the people.
Experts said Science is evidenced-based. It is an incontrovertible fact to state that no organism has remained the same from its day of creation. Organisms evolve from time to time either naturally, by accident or synthetically. This calls for more information dissemination on biotechnology to desensitize menace being associated with it.
It is important to note that without innovative advances like biotechnology in agriculture the efforts at eradicating hunger would remain a mirage in Nigeria and the globe in general, according to the pro-GMO activists.
The employment of biotechnology in Agriculture brings about less use of chemicals in food production as well, according to Dr Rose Gidado, the Country coordinator of the Open Forumfor Agricultural Biotechnology [OFAB].
She said raesearch has it that the world population will be in the bracket of eight billion by 2020, and Nigeria is already confronted with acute food inadequacy hence the need to devise ingenuous means to tackle this social conundrum.
“We need to consider the fact that Nigeria tops the list of the most populous black countries in world, and by this means that by 2020 the Nigerian population must have grown as well’’, Dr Gidado said.
The aim of establishing NBMA tallies with the stern determination of the government to diversify the economy in light of the free fall in the price and availability of crude oil which has been the mainstay of the economy for decades, and the need to invest in the agricultural sector to subdue hunger.
She added that the significance of biotechnology in all sectors of the economy cannot be overemphasized.
“It has the potential to increase agricultural productivity, boost food security, provide an improved health care delivery system, enhance a feasible industrial development process for transforming raw materials, detoxify harmful wastes, reduce mortality rates, move agriculture away from a dependence on chemical inputs and help to reduce environmental problems.
“As a country, we cannot shy away or refuse to participate in this globally accepted technological revolution with over 25 years of safety records.’’