The outgoing Commissioner of Agriculture of the African Union (AU), Ambassador Josefa Sacko, has stressed that she fought against GMOs on the continent but blamed their adoption in some African countries on their rights to sovereignty.

Ambassador Josefa, who addressed a press briefing at the 38th Ordinary Session of the AU and General Assembly, declared that there are wealthy individuals and groups doling out resources to promote GMOs.

“I fought any type of initiative or strategy under my mandate on this debate. We are divided; we are not speaking with one voice. Some people support it because Bill and Melinda Gates have a lot of money to give them; some people don’t. My country, we are not on GMO, and many countries are not on that.

So it is really a matter of sovereignty.

“I am leaving my tenure like this because I did not betray my continent. I do not support this GMO because I want to have a scientific basis. Here in this press conference, previously my sister was there, she is a journalist, she asked that question, and I told my colleagues from South Grant: open a committee, give this information to Member

States to know what the impacts of this GMO are. Africa didn’t have the rate of cancer that we have now.

“When I was a child, we knew that cancer was for rich men, not poor men. But today, almost everybody has cancer. What are the origins of cancer? It’s what we eat, what we take as a vaccine. Even this COVID vaccine gives a lot of consequences; you cannot produce a vaccine in just one day and start injecting it.

“Maybe now that I have retired, I will be an activist against GMOs. You can count on it.”

GMOs have been a hot topic in Nigeria since the adoption of Tela Maize. Citizens have expressed outrage on social media and at the November 19, 2024, public hearing, where the Deputy Spokesman for the House, Hon. Phillip Agbese, and several lawmakers expressed their displeasure at the proliferation of the highly controversial GMOs in the country.

Also last week, the Centre for Food Safety and Agricultural Research (CEFSAR), along with other civil society organisations (CSOs), called on Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, to look into the food security of Nigeria, citing the US-China Economic Review Commission’s report stating concerns of possible attacks through GMOs.