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By Sunday Ani
The Global Prolife Alliance (GPA) has alerted the African Union Commission (AUC) and United Nations, among others to what it called “a matter of existential significance to Africa’s scientific sovereignty, food security and biosafety integrity.”
According to the group, “In 2001, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) made history by adopting the African Model Law on Safety in Biotechnology, a visionary framework that upheld the precautionary principle, national control over genetic resources and the inviolable right of communities to informed consent.
“This was Africa’s proud declaration that human health, the environment and ethical science must never be subordinated to foreign commercial interests. Yet, over the past two decades, this continental safeguard has been quietly eroded.”
A statement by the Chairman of GPA, Dr. Philip Njemanze, lamented that the establishment of the NEPAD African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE), funded primarily by external actors, has fundamentally altered Africa’s biosafety landscape.
The GPA noted that under the guise of ‘building regulatory capacity,’ the precautionary approach has been replaced by the so-called ‘science-based’ model engineered to serve corporate biotechnology interests rather than public safety.
The GPA stated: “Independent assessments by the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), Third World Network-Africa and the ETC Group have exposed how this shift has weakened national legislation, compromised oversight institutions and replaced sovereign decision-making with donor-driven dependency.
The result is a continental system increasingly captured by global agritech corporations.
“Disturbingly, in several African countries, biosafety agencies have been infiltrated or influenced by biotech lobby groups masquerading as technical advisers. These entities fast-track approvals of genetically modified crops without adequate long-term studies on human health or ecological impacts.
“In parallel, corporate-sponsored seed councils are working to marginalise traditional seed growers and criminalise indigenous seed exchange, effectively dismantling Africa’s ancient systems of agricultural resilience.
“Further, according to the video titled, ‘Shocking! How eggs are criminally harvested from women in Nigeria without their knowledge,’ it is claimed that the biotech companies and their billionaire investors are involved in a broader operation. The video reported that women in Nigeria were allegedly having their eggs harvested without their knowledge; it suggested that the practice was linked to a clandestine human-organ cloning industry being supported by the same biotech corporations pushing GM seed monopoly; the narrative in the video expands the scope of the threat from genetic control of seeds and crops to human biological exploitation and warned of a broader strategic plot designed to undermine African sovereignty over life itself.”
The group stated that “this is no longer a technical debate, it is a matter of continental survival. The African Model Law on Biosafety remains our last legal and moral defence against what can rightly be termed biotech terrorism, the weaponization of genetics and food systems for profit and control.”
The group, therefore, called on the African Union to reaffirm and update the African Model Law on Safety in Biotechnology (2001) as the binding continental benchmark for biosafety regulation; establish an Independent African Union Biosafety Oversight Commission to ensure transparency, ethical compliance and accountability in biotechnology governance; mandate full public disclosure of all foreign funding and partnerships involved in biosafety, seed policy and agricultural research programmes across member states and invest in indigenous research and seed innovation under African public institutions to preserve our genetic heritage and ensure true food sovereignty.”
It added that the leadership of the African Union Commission at this critical hour can restore continental integrity in the face of external manipulation and reclaim Africa’s right to determine her own scientific destiny. The world must see that Africa will not trade her biodiversity and food security for donor dependency.
