By Stephen Obidike
GMO which means Genetically Modified Organisms. This could be a plant, an animal or a microorganism. Genetic Modification is a very modern biological technology or gene technology where genetic material usually the Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) material is taken from another organism and inserted in another organism which might be an unrelated species to the parent organism creating a new DNA that does not occur like that in nature. Foods produced from such technology are called GMO foods and the plants GMO plants.
Biochemist Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen have the credit for making the first GMO in 1973, after producing a bacterium resistant to antibiotic Kanamycin. This was closely followed by the creation of a genetically modified mouse in 1974 by Rudolf Jeanisch. The first GMO plant was not until 1983. One may wonder why the effort. Do we not have enough natural foods and plants to cater for us. Pro GMO food enthusiasts argue that GMO foods have greater productivity due to increased resistance to plant diseases caused by viruses and insects and increased tolerance to herbicides. Invariably viruses and insects die off if the eat the GMO plants.
This beggars the simple question, what kills an insect will eventually kill a man albeit over a longer period. There has been that acceptance that land used for cultivating a GMO plant cannot be used after some time negating the natural planting practice where you can cultivate a land several times before you can give it a period of respite to replenish its nutrients. This can also be easily done by use of naturally made compost manure or fertilizers.
GMO foods and plants are not widely accepted over the world with the EU recently approving GMO cotton, Rapeseed, Soybean and Maize. Algeria and Madagascar banned GMO in Africa while Asia, Turkey Kyrgyzstan, Bhutan and Saudi Arabia are among the other countries that have also banned GMO foods and plants. In Nigeria, The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) oversees regulating, controlling the importation, exportation, manufacture, advertisement, distribution, sale and use of food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, bottled water, chemicals and detergents in Nigeria. The current Chief Executive Officer Professor Moji Adeyeye had stated the NAFDAC has not approved any GMO foods for the Nigerian public.
However, recently the APC Tinubu-led government launched the TELA GMO Maize in Abuja to boost maize production in Nigeria. This project is a collaboration between the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria and the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF) with huge funding from the notorious Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. You want to wonder if all necessary health departments are talking to each other because the health of a nation is its wealth.
We are what we eat and what we eat affects our health in one way or another. Our health sector is not fully developed and is suffering from infrastructural deficiency. There is also the problem of lack of enough medical manpower. Despite increase in food shortage which was caused mainly by insecurity in some states in the federation, we must have to be careful with what we bring into the country for human consumption because what we eat today might become a problem for us tomorrow. With certain agencies in the world campaigning for population control especially in Africa, we must be careful of accepting the proverbial “Greek Gift.” The Nigerian government and necessary agency have a duty to protect the lives and property of every Nigerian. A stitch in time saves nine.
Dr Stephen Obidike, an Emergency Physician, wrote from the UK.
