Stories by Helen Oji
with agencies
The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) says it has reviewed its operational policy to meet best global practices.
Head of Communication, NBMA, Mrs. Gloria Ogbaki, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja.
Ogbaki said the reviewed policy was in “tandem with NBMA Act and emerging biosafety issues which are in line with modern biotechnology’’.
She assured that the agency was poised to ensure holistic implementation of the policy to engender effective biosafety management in the country.
The spokesperson recalled that the 2006 National Biosafety Policy was reviewed by the agency in conjunction with relevant stakeholders and MDAs, and aligned with the NBMA Act 2015.
“The reviewed policy was presented by the Minister of Environment to the Federal Executive Council and it has graciously become the new biosafety policy for the country,’’ Ogbaki said.
She reiterated the agency’s commitment to ensure certified genetically modified foods and crops are safe for people and the environment in line with the new biosafety policy.
According to her, the establishment of the agency was not to stop the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) but to ensure its safety for Nigerians with no adverse effect on humans, plants, animals and the environment.
“The agency would continue to carry out its vision which states that: The National Biosafety Management Agency is to ensure that the practice, processes and procedures, of Modern Biotechnology, is undertaken within the limits of regulatory systems.
“Such systems would guarantee its safe use, protects Nigeria’s biodiversity and provides minimum risk to human health, animals, plants and the environment, for the good of Nigerians,’’ she said.
… Denies complicity in GMOs’ use
Director-General of National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr. Rufus Ebegba, has denied the allegation of complicity leveled against the agency by the Health for Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), over the use of Genetically Modified Organisms in Nigeria.
Ebegba in a statement issued by the Head of Communication of the agency, Mrs. Gloria ogbaki, said that that the agency was established by a law is to ensure the safe handling and use of modern biotechnology and its products which includes Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
The statement read: “The statements made against the Agency are not only incisive but negate the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria to ensure safety in the application of the technologies that assure Nigerians of food security and food safety.
“The Agency is not to stop the use of GMOs but to ensure that it is safe for Nigerians and that it has no adverse effect on human health, plants, animals and the environment.
“The mandate from the NBMA Act 2015 which states that “the Agency is charged with the responsibility for providing regulatory framework, institutional and administrative mechanism for the safety measures in the application of modern biotechnology in Nigeria with the view to preventing any adverse effect on human health, animals, plants and environment.
“The Agency does not go outside the law in the course of the discharge of its duty and we ensure that the public is carried along in all the agency’s activities “through effective public participation, public awareness and access to information in the use and application of modern biotechnology and GMOs.
“The Agency issued some permits and due processes were followed in the course of reviewing the applications and ensuring that all the necessary requirements are met before the permits were granted.
“It will be wrong and indeed out of place to accuse the Agency of complicity as the Agency is an unbiased umpire and has the interest of Nigerians at heart in the process of regulation and as such can’t be involved in anything that will cause harm to the people and the environment.
“The Agency wishes to use this opportunity to reassure Nigerians that it is out to ensure that whatever GM foods or crops certified safe by the Agency are indeed safe for the people and the environment adding that, we will continue to voraciously carry out our vision which states that the NBMA is to ensure that the practice, processes and procedures of Modern Biotechnology is undertaken within the limits of regulatory systems that guarantees its safe use, protects Nigeria’s biodiversity and provides minimum risk to human health, animals, plants and the environment” for the good of all Nigerians.
