There are those who believe that foods made from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are mostly unsafe for human consumption. But the temptation to embrace it is huge now as food security becomes more urgent in the face of the country’s challenges, which are affecting food production.
However, experts caution that the promoters of GMO foods have a hidden agenda, which is certainly not in the best interest of Nigerians.
In a letter to President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly, Global Prolife Alliance (GPA) urged the federal government to ban all GMO seed cultivation and distribution in Nigeria.
The group alleged that some foreign interests acquired a private army to train mercenaries hired from Africa and beyond to disguise as Fulani herdsmen, bandits and insurgents to kill farmers, who are the natural seed growers. The group said, sometime ago, natural seed growers were tracked through technology and killed because natural seed growers were seen as competitors of biotech companies providing GMO foods.
The group said the latest system being advocated by some interested parties “is designed to track the identity and financial records of every Nigerian, to track and kill the most economically viable Nigerians, leaving in the country a people in abject poverty that could easily be controlled.”
The letter signed by the chairman of GPA, Dr. Philip Njemanze, stated that the”overall strategy is to capture the food security of Nigeria.”
It said some interests had intervened with deceptive programmes, leading to the death of many seed grower-farmers in Nigeria.
The group said: “Our agricultural productivity has plummeted. Farmers cannot go to the farm for fear of being killed in their farms. Nigeria is now a nation in hunger, worse than a decade ago before the nefarious activities began.”
The group added that “GMO seeds, deceptively called high-yield improved seeds, do not replicate themselves; hence they are called ‘suicide seeds,’ that is, once planted and it grows, you cannot replant the next generation. The farmers have to go to the promoters every planting season to collect new seeds.”
The GPA said that it is at that “point that the promoters intend to dictate their terms to allow Nigerian people to feed on the toxic GMOs. “Meanwhile, because the GMO seeds are planted alongside the natural crops, the cross-pollination would make the natural seed also carry the GMO seed genes, rendering them also GMO crops. This has a serious implication: for example, a 1% contamination of the natural crops would make them be classified as GMO; hence they will remain banned from European, Russian, American and Asian markets.
“Agriculture in Nigeria would stop being a foreign currency earning sector of the economy. The foreigners are killing the Nigerian farmers, not Islamic extremists.”
According to the group, since 2009, terrorists have been sponsored and branded Boko Haram, bandits and herdsmen to carry out genocide of farmers in Nigeria to capture Nigeria’s food security.
“Consider this, from 2015-2018, 37,500 farmers were killed, 32,000 were Muslims, and 5,500 were Christians. Despite the fact that 85% of the victims were Muslims, the international and local press propaganda mercenary branded it ‘Islamic terrorism.’
“Any attempt to uncover the truth is met by another orchestrated kidnapping of schoolchildren for ransom to depict it as criminal activity rather than well coordinated operations of the sponsors and their biotech accomplices. A corrupt set of people within the Nigerian government collaborated with the foreigners’ agenda, committing treason against their motherland. The time to end this is now!
“We urge the National Assembly and FG to ban all GMO seed cultivation and distribution in Nigeria.
“Amend the National Biosafety Management Agency Act 2015 to be based on precautionary principles in the Cartagena protocol.
“Repeal the National Health Act 2014 that authorizes collection of gametes and organs without consent. “Commence NASS hearings on the national security threat posed by biotech companies and their affiliates in Nigeria.”