Stakeholders in the Biotechnology and Biosafety sector in Nigeria have passed a vote of confidence on the existing Act setting up the National Biosafety Management Agency.
They called on the National Assembly to reject any call for the amendment of the 2015 Act.
The stakeholders made their points known at a one-day public hearing on a “Bill for An Act to Amend the National Biosafety Management Agency Act, 2015, organised by the National Assembly, Senate Committee on Environment in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
While making presentations, various stakeholders were of the notions that aside from being obstructive; the act if amended would set Nigeria back in the progress it has made in attaining food security.
In a submission, the Executive Director, Institute of Agriculture Research, Zaria, Kaduna State, North West Nigeria, Professor Mohammed Ishiyaku, said; “the amendment being sought is made to look like it protects Nigerians in the format it was presented but in reality seeks to tie the hands of experts and prevent Nigerians from benefiting from economic opportunities the sector offers.”
“Together with my team, I have just concluded the release of a Cowpea variety, that is highly nutritious and is bringing a lot in terms of improving the livelihood of Nigerians.
“If this amendment go through as they are, having gone through all of them, I haven’t seen any value it’s adding to the act establishing this agency rather it is discriminatory, it’s restrictive and also tie up the hands of scientists in domesticating the potential benefits of modern biotechnology to the Nigerian people and then making us more susceptible, more dependent on products of Biotechnology from elsewhere,” Ishiyaku explained.
The Director General of the National Biotechnology Development Agency, NABDA in Nigeria, Professor Abdulahi Mustapha, stated that “the amendment is not necessary as it will limit the practice of science in Nigeria and negatively affect the gain that Nigeria has made from modern Biotechnology practice over the years.”
He said; “Nigeria has enacted deliberate policies that positioned science and technology as the engine to drive the economic, so turning around to set up unnecessary roadblocks will limit science from taking us to our destination.”
Ishiyaku urged the Senate to jettison the proposed amendment because it’s anti people and development.
In his submission to the committee, the Director General of the National Biosafety Management Agency in Nigeria, NBMA, Dr Rufus Ebegba said that “if the NBMA Act 2015 is amended, science and technology would no longer drive the Nigerian economy while noting that the current law has been adjudged globally as the best Biosafety law in Africa.”
Dr Ebegba said; “Science and technology are the drivers of modern world, this current law took 13 years to be actualised, took 2 National Assembly sessions, the 5th and the 6th assembly to actualise this law and I’ll tell you today Mr. Chairman that this amendment is not necessary on the following grounds, this law has been adjudged globally as the best Biosafety law in Africa.”
He further stated that Nigeria would not achieve a green and a bio economy if this amendment pulls through.
The African Agricultural Technology Foundation, AATF, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology, OFAB, Project Manager, Mr Vitumbiko Chinoko also shared more light on why the amendment of the 2015 Biosafety Acts should not scale.
Mr Chinoko stated that Nigeria was the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to make good progress in Biosafety regulations.
He said Nigeria’s Biotechnology progress has seen the development of the PBR Cowpea, the BT Cotton and soon the BT Maize and is yet to witness negative adverse effects from it; he is of the notion that there’s no need fixing what is not broken.
Also lending his voice, the President of the All-Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, Kabir Ibrahim emphasised the importance of Biotechnology in attaining food security in Nigeria and improving the livelihood of farmers.
Mr Ibrahim said that Nigeriafarmerseed technology would lift them out of poverty and that the bill seeking amendment of the current Biosafety law does not appreciate the contribution of science to food production.
The Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment who chaired the Public Hearing, Senator Ibrahim Hadejia called on the sponsors of the bill to come forward and make presentations but no one came forward.
Senator Hadejia however disclosed that an anonymous person at the hearing was seeking confidentiality and submitting in support of the bill but was turned down by the committee as the platform was a public hearing and should be treated as such.
He added that the sponsors of the bill should be confident enough to come and defend it while noting that the objective of the hearing was to guide the Legislature in making informed decisions in the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
