FG Should Review GMO Approval Processes

For the sake of humanity and the environment, public health experts have asked the federal government to review the approval process for genetically modified crops (GMO).

According to them, this would help protect the population such that consumers would be able to choose what they eat. Furthermore, the regulatory framework should be revised like the one in India, where about four parastatals participate in the approval process.

They emphasised that the approval for GMOs should not only be left in the hands of the National Biosafety Management Agency, but saying the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should also be a part of the approval process.

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Dr. Kashmir Ifeanyi, a molecular biologist, while speaking at weekend during a one-day workshop for judicial officers at the weekend, expressed his concerns that Nigeria had approved several GMOs but that the risk assessment was questionable as they were largely predicated on the claims by the applicants, on which Nigeria is supposed to get other opinions about the GM crop before approvals.

He noted that currently, Nigeria has approved GM Cassava in two places as well as the approval and commercial release of BT cotton and BT Beans, adding that early in 2022 the agency also approved herbicide tolerant maize, coupled with the approval of the large-scale importation of GM Wheat from Argentina.

He stated that before the approval of the GM wheat for importation, no risk assessments were conducted on the internal organs of the experimental animal as the animal was only assessed physically.

Dr. Kashmir stated that since the safety of GM crops for human consumption is still being subjected to conflicting reports and was very controversial, there has been no consensus on the safety of GM.