Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour: Commercialisation Of GMO Seeds Can Take Away Nigeria’s Food Sovereignty, Cause Health Issues

Nigerian Politician and Environmentalist, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has spoken out against the commercialisation of genetically modified seeds, often referred to as GMO seeds, saying that they can take away Nigeria’s food sovereignty and cause health issues due to the pesticides used in the planting of these seeds.

Rhodes-Vivour said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Sunday after a report was published alleging that the US was funding GMO propaganda in Nigeria.

The Nigerian government, in January 2024, approved the commercialisation of transgenic insect-resistant and drought-tolerant maize varieties, known as TELA maize.

However, Rhodes-Vivour, in his reaction to the report, said, “My position on this is we must preserve our food sovereignty. Now, our food sovereignty comes from having our smallholder farms, being able to plant seeds, save some of those seeds from their harvest, and replant again in the next season. Now, GMO takes that away because you have to buy seeds every year from these multinationals, and these seeds are price-based of dollars, right?

“So you understand where that puts us with our own currency situation. Then you have a situation where export markets are limited. You cannot export GMOs to Europe. If you grow GMOs in Russia, you are treated as a terrorist and criminalised as such, right? And you have a situation where the pesticides also have an effect on the land, right? Kill a lot of the natural bacteria of the soil that then prevents you from even growing a natural variety on that land again.

Rhodes-Vivour then, in further reaction to the report, criticised alleged US interference in Nigeria’s agricultural policies, calling it a threat to the country’s autonomy as he said, “What this report highlights is the amount of interference in our food system being conducted by America through USAID, right? At the time, it sounded like conspiracy theories. So I’m very glad for the investigative journalism that has brought this to light, because there’s only so much you can say.

“But the truth is, if you have a good product, you don’t need to be creating lies to sell that product. The product will sell itself. All over the world, people are having these same experiences, but you see, there’s a lot of lobby power, even our own bio-management agencies funded by the USAID. How is your regulatory agency that’s supposed to ensure the safety of Nigerians funded by the people that are making these products? So it becomes a rubber stamp situation. And then you also have the endocrine disruption, health consequences and health issues associated with all of these things.”

“For me, in a country that has such fertile land, unfortunately, our farmers have not been secured. Most of them have been reduced to refugees in IDP camps.

So our government needs to actually do that work to secure our farmers. Secondly, we need to actually ensure that inputs, funding and everything necessary for smallholder farming gets to the farmers and is not eaten away by corruption. These are the things that need to be done, not magic seeds that then takes away your food sovereignty, to control the people you control their food,” he added.

Responding to the fact that the government said GMO will help increase agricultural yield, he said, “They can come with the argument that it will help increase our yield. They can come with that argument and play down the fact that we’re going to have to buy seeds every year, which is not what we do. That’s not our culture. And even the government has not invested properly in creating its own improved seeds, its variations.

“And another thing, Africa, Nigeria, can be the number one producer of organic food. In England, organic food costs five to seven times more than the genetic variety. So people that want to eat their natural food, people that are sick and their doctors tell them, eat natural food, they can be buying from us. This is the huge opportunity we have. But when farmer A plants GMO here, farmer B plants organic here, horizontal wind drift will take the seeds from here to contaminate this one. This is another problem. So it’s very insidious.”

“The government should not be an extra hand of a multinational. The government must secure the health and well-being and the future of Nigerians.”

Rhodes-Vivour then urged the government to invest in independent research institutes and regulatory agencies funded by Nigerians to ensure long-term safety and avoid dependence on multinationals.

He said, “We need independent regulatory agencies that are funded by us. We must start to despise the free lunch because it comes with a bigger price later on. We must fund our own independent research institutes, our own scientists that are going to be looking into the effects of these things on the long term for the people of Nigeria, not as a surrogate that’s just there to rubber stamp. Do proper trials over a proper period of time and do proper tests and report to Nigerian people.”

He further called on lawmakers to learn from countries that have reversed GMO policies after observing their adverse effects, as he said, “There are precedents all around the world where countries have taken the stand to use GMO. After three, four years, or three, four seasons, they realize that this is not in their interest, and they reverse it. There is the whole process of reversal. So I appeal to our lawmakers to go and visit other countries that have dealt with this, that are outside the influence of the USAID and Monsanto, to hear their own side of the story.”

Rhodes-Vivour then emphasised his stance against the commercialisation of GMO seeds, saying, “We’re very vocal about our stand against GMO and how it’s not in the interest of Nigerians. So what they then did is disinformation and then play down the risk. So they tried to create, tarnish our image, and they had a whole team on Twitter, people that will be attacking. 

“But these people are not even Nigerians, they’re not based in Nigeria. So let Nigerians decide what they want in their food system. Let the government be able to pass their laws in the interest of the people, not all this lobby and foreign interference. If this was being done to America, they would not like it, they will not take it.”

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