A coalition of environmental and food safety advocacy groups, including the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), and the GMO-Free Nigeria Alliance, has called on the Federal Government to immediately ban the cultivation, importation, and consumption of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Nigeria.
The demand was made during a virtual media briefing hosted by HOMEF on the occasion of World Food Safety Day, themed “Caution in Science: Communicating the Risks Associated with GMOs.”
Speaking during the event, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of HOMEF, criticised the government’s continued endorsement of GMOs, stating that such products are not a solution to food insecurity, but rather a threat to food sovereignty and agricultural biodiversity. “GMOs promote monoculture, erode local seed diversity, and deepen hunger by increasing dependence on foreign corporations. Patents on GMO seeds prohibit farmers from saving, sharing, or replanting, which is antithetical to Nigeria’s traditional farming culture where 80% of agriculture is informal,” Bassey said.
He emphasised that the revocation of previous GMO approvals and permits is necessary to reclaim national control over food systems and protect the rights of smallholder farmers. “What we are witnessing is a calculated attempt to colonise Nigeria’s food systems through corporate control. GMOs should be banned — they are polluting our food supply and undermining indigenous agricultural practices. It’s time to decolonise our food systems,” he added, urging the National Assembly to legislate a national ban.
Also speaking, Mrs. Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, Deputy Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, expressed concern that while several countries have enacted strict laws against GMOs, Nigeria has failed to adopt adequate protective measures for its citizens. “Unfortunately, Nigeria lacks mandatory GMO labelling regulations, which denies the public their right to informed food choices and safe consumption,” she stated.
“Our biosafety regulatory framework is fundamentally flawed. It fails to incorporate the Precautionary Principle, and it lacks a strict liability clause — meaning companies are not held accountable for the potential health and environmental impacts of their products.”
Bassey-Orovwuje also urged the Nigerian government to focus on agroecological solutions to transform the food system. Agroecology, she said, not only promotes biodiversity and soil health but also offers sustainable livelihoods and resilience to climate change. “We must address the real threats to food security: poor storage and transportation infrastructure, which cause over 40% post-harvest losses, and insecurity, which drives farmers away from their fields,” she added.
In their separate interventions, Dr. Ifeanyi Casmir, a molecular biologist, and Prof. Tatfeng Mirabeau, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, echoed the call for an immediate ban on GMOs.
Dr. Casmir raised alarm over the absence of comprehensive, long-term risk assessments on the health implications of GMOs in Nigeria. “Scientific studies have linked GMO consumption to various health disorders, including immune dysfunction, allergic reactions, chronic inflammation, organ toxicity, and even tumour development. Yet, there is no government-backed research evaluating these risks in the Nigerian population,” he said.
Prof. Mirabeau warned that GMOs also pose a critical risk of genetic contamination to Nigeria’s indigenous seed varieties due to irreversible gene transfer, which could compromise the country’s agricultural heritage and long-term food security. “Genetic contamination is a silent but irreversible threat to our native crops. If we do not act now, we risk losing our agricultural identity and the biodiversity that sustains it,” he said.
The coalition called on the government to conduct an urgent review of the National Biosafety Management Agency Act, implement mandatory labelling of GMO products, and invest in farmer-led, ecologically sustainable agricultural systems.
