By Es-ife Arogundade
Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), has warned that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) pose a serious threat to Nigeria’s food sovereignty and agricultural diversity.
Delivering a keynote address at the National Symposium on GMOs on 1 September 2025, Bassey urged a critical re-examination of the role of GMOs in addressing food insecurity. He argued that the country must resist external pressures that prioritise biotechnology over sustainable, people-centred solutions.
Bassey described food insecurity in Nigeria and Africa as a multifaceted problem, rooted in farmer–herder conflicts, poverty, inequality, climate change, and inadequate support for smallholder farmers. He criticised the Nigerian government’s approach since the enactment of the 2015 National Biosafety Management Agency Act, which opened the door for GMO introduction. According to him, agencies promoting biotechnology are closely linked to its development and lack the independence required for robust regulatory oversight.
He stressed that nearly three decades of GMO deployment worldwide have failed to reduce hunger. Instead, GMOs have exacerbated challenges by contributing to soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and the concentration of agricultural markets in the hands of a few multinational corporations. Bassey condemned what he called the “fetishisation” of technology that ignores socio-economic and environmental risks, warning that GMO adoption in Nigeria amounts to a form of neo-colonial control undermining indigenous food systems.
Pointing to Nigeria’s commercialisation of genetically engineered crops such as Bt Cotton and Bt Cowpea, he noted that these crops are fundamentally altered to resist herbicides or act as pesticides—with potentially harmful consequences for health, ecosystems, and farming livelihoods. He urged Nigeria to reject GMOs, not out of fear, but from a position of caution against exploitation and the erosion of the country’s agricultural heritage.
Bassey called for a “decolonisation of agriculture” through the preservation of indigenous seeds and biodiversity, increased support for local farmers, promotion of organic farming, and strict application of the precautionary principle in biosafety regulations. He further advocated a moratorium on modern agricultural biotechnology to prevent irreversible damage to Nigeria’s food systems.
Highlighting Tanzania’s reported achievement of food sufficiency in 2025 without the use of GMOs, Bassey stressed that Nigeria can achieve similar success by investing in resilient local farming systems.
The symposium, he concluded, reaffirmed Nigeria’s right to food sovereignty and the urgent need to reclaim control of agriculture from corporate and colonial interests.
