Experts urge President Buhari to decline assent to revised Biosafety Act

A coalition of civil society advocates led by Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), on Monday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to decline assent to the reviewd Biosafety Act of 2015.

The recently passed Bill for an Act to amend the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) Act, 2015 seeks to enlarge the scope of the application and include definitions of other evolving aspects of modern biotechnology in Nigeria.

The coalition comprising GMO-Free Nigeria Alliance and over 40 Non-Governmental Organizations representing millions of Nigerians warned that the law would expose the population to possible health hazards.

According to the groups, including these evolving aspects of biotechnology in the NBMA Act will open up the country to more dangerous experimentations on aspects of the highly controversial technology.

They argued that it was premature to grant such approvals while the country  still struggle with regulating the basic aspects of biotechnology.

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In a statement signed by 45 representatives, the groups stated that the evolving aspects of modern biotechnology including gene drives/gene editing and synthetic biology which are known to pose serious risks to global biodiversity.

They said that unrestrained approval will harm the Nigerian economy,  health, food and ecosystems.

The Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey, explained that gene drive is a genetic engineering tool which is used to force artificial genetic changes through entire populations of animals, insects and plants.

He warned that this technology has the potential of wiping off whole populations of organisms within a short time and can be harnessed as a biological weapon, thereby constituting a threat to national, regional and global security.

Bassey further explained that currently, at global level, there is no agreement on how to carry out risk assessments or establish risk management measures for gene drive organisms.

He noted that there are no clear guidelines on how to establish that appropriate, free, prior and informed consent of local communities which will be affected.

“Until a global agreement is reached on these, it is our concern that any new framework enabling new gene-edited changes will also have the effect of creating loopholes allowing for the release gene drive organisms  in Nigeria to disastrous results,” he added.

The Coordinator of the GMO-Free Nigeria Alliance, Gbadebo Rhode-Vivour pointed out that synthetic biology, another aspect of modern biotechnology that the bill seeks to include will expose Nigerians to negative impact of experinments.

 According to him, the generation of new organisms with traits which do not exist in nature through the use of re-designed principles of engineering molecular biology.

This, he said, has great implications for local economies and biodiversity, as natural/locally made products will be replaced with synthetic ones and markets will be concentrated in the hands of corporations.

 The development he said, will increase corporate control over product processes and destroying local livelihoods.

Rhode-Vivour added that synthetic biology may result to unexpected contaminants, toxins or allergens that will be hard to control.

The groups reiterated that Nigeria does not need agricultural biotechnology or the extreme applications of genetic engineering to solve food and agricultural problems.

“What is needed is the protection of our biodiversity as a robust base for supporting our local economy,  indigenous farming systems and promotion of people-centred solutions and not profit driven approaches”.they stated.

They stressed that Nigeria should first strengthen regulation of the first generation genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and invest in independent research on the technology.

They maintained that it is essential for Nigeria to support and listen to researchers that are not conflicted with vested interests.

The coalition called on President Buhari to instead of assenting to the Bill, put an outright ban on gene drives, on synthetic Biology and on the first generation GMOs, given its potential dangers to our developing nation.