We won’t approve unsafe products, NMBA assures Nigerians

National Biosafety Management Agency (NMBA) has assured Nigerians that it would not approve unsafe and uncertified products for Nigerian markets.

The agency also lamented the misrepresentation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) online. It said while European countries and America had moved on from the debate, African countries and Nigeria still dwelt on it.

Acting Director, NMBA, Hauwa Tahir Ahmed made this known in Ikeja, Lagos during a one-day Agricultural Biosafety/Biotech Communication Workshop, titled “Strategic Communication Training for Reporters/Influencers on Biosafety/Biotech Regulations.

The training was to address misconceptions about modern biotechnology, especially Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

Ahmed, who spoke on behalf of the Director-General/CEO, NBMA, Dr Agnes Yemisi Asagbra, said the agency would never approve of something unsafe for the country.

“That’s the integrity, and one thing I’m assuring Nigerians is that we all go to the same market, we are not buying from a different market, and so the public should be assured that anything the NBMA says is safe for humans, animals, plants and the environment.”

“Most people don’t understand the technology behind GMO. So, they spread rumour that it causes cancer, that it makes men sterile, poisonous, that it can’t be replanted, that it destroys the bi-diversity and that people can’t plant anything in a field where GMO seeds are grown, which is not true.”

On the insinuation that GMOs are forced on Nigerians, she said: “There is nothing like forcing GMOs down anybody’s throat because GMOs are equal to the conventional ones. The difference is not something that can be physically seen; the gene is just altered and has nothing different from the conventional one. So, it’s safe.”

Also, Head, Information and Public Relations, Gloria Ogbaki, said: “This meeting is to keep the Nigerian journalists abreast about NBMA, what we do and spread the right information. NBMA is a regulatory agency; we regulate modern biotechnology and are the only competent national authority when it comes to the regulation of modern biotechnology. We are unbiased. We pass our judgment based on scientific facts and evidence.”