The Global Prolife Alliance (GPA) has called on Islamic clerics to condemn Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) seeds. It also charged bishops of all Christian Churches to declare a crusade against GMO seeds in Africa.
A letter signed by the chairman of the group, Dr. Philip Njemanze, appealed to Muslim and Christian clerics for religious unity on the issue. This is sequel to its letter to the National Assembly and the Presidency, addressing the national security threat posed by GMO seeds, which it labeled “GMO seeds of death.” It called on the Federal Government to ban all GMO seeds in Nigeria.
The GPA said the involvement of clerics is deemed crucial in addressing the perceived dangers and national security threats posed by GMO seeds. It equally alleges that some biotech companies are exploiting religious bias to sow discord in Nigeria while concealing their involvement in supporting violence by hiring Boko Haram terrorists as mercenaries to kill farmers and burn natural seed farm lands.
The group said: “Data supplied by the United States Council on Foreign Relations to the US Congress reveals that between 2015 and 2018, about 37,500 persons were killed by Boko Haram terrorists. Shockingly, 85% or 32,000 of the victims were Muslims and 15% or 5,500 were Christians.
“This disproportionate data raises questions about the narrative of religious terrorism being responsible for the different forms of branded violence, including Boko Haram, bandits and herdsmen.”
According to the GPA, there is a consolidated attempt to blackmail a section of the country and its religion by the biotech sponsors of terrorism based on ethnic and religious bias.
The group explained that “the victims are falsely portrayed as perpetrators. The biotech companies’ motive of ethnic cleansing and commercial drive becomes clear when it was revealed that most victims were farmers and seed-growers in their communities.”
The GPA contends that the biotech companies were eliminating their competitors, the traditional natural seed grower farmers in Nigeria. Thereafter, Nigeria would have only one option of GMO seeds, since all natural seed growers have been eliminated.
“The precise sponsor of the violence is revealed by the fact that these farmers were tracked to the nearest meter using their GPS coordinates on their cell phones equipped with GPS and NFC technologies called electronic wallets. These ‘electronic wallets of death’ were given to them to pay natural seed-growers after purchases of seeds by other farmers.
“Religious leaders would be crucial for public enlightenment about the dangers of these GMO seeds, which may include mass sterilization, cancers, liver disease, kidney disease and allergies, etc. GMO seeds pose a threat to national food security.
“Moreover, contamination of other natural crops with 1% gene from GMO crops would lead to a complete ban of Nigerian food exports to the European Union, USA, Russia etc, resulting in the loss of foreign earnings for farmers.
“Furthermore, an increasing number of countries are banning GMO crops due to their hazardous effects on health. In the European Union, the following countries have banned GMOs: France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Poland, Denmark, Malta, Slovenia, and Croatia. Russia banned and burnt any existing GMO crop fields. This prompts the question: If Europeans banned GMO crops, declaring them poisonous and unhealthy for European people, how could GMOs be considered nutritious for Nigerians and other Africans?
“The simple answer is GMO crops are poisonous and should not be used for human consumption, unless the agenda is the genocide of the people of Africa in a Nazi-style final solution. We emphatically say no. GMOs must be banned in Nigeria and across Africa.”
Copies sent to: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Senator Kashim Shettima, Senator Godswill Akpabio, President of the Senate NASS; Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker of the House Representatives, IGP, ministers, Bishop Conferences in Africa, Europe, Asia and America, Head of States of all UN member countries, UN Ambassadors, UN Agencies on Human Rights, African Union, Organization of American States, European Union Parliament, ASEAN, World Medical Association, Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC), ECOWAS, ILO, WTO, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, USAID, DFID, CIDA, International Human Rights Organizations, national and international press, distinguished Nigerians and African socio-political leaders.