Producing GMOs scientific fraud; not agriculture —Prof. Cyril Otoikhian

By Ebele Orakpo

While some believe that Genetic Modification is the best way to achieve food sufficiency, others call it agro-terrorism/bioterrorism; Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying that anyone who brings GM foods into Russia will be treated as a terrorist.

Those who are opposed to GMOs like the Union of Concerned Scientists, Greenpeace, Center for Food Safety and Organic Consumers Association say GMO risks have not been adequately identified and managed, and they don’t trust the objectivity of regulatory authorities.

In this report, Saturday Vanguard speaks to experts in relevant areas to bring clarity to the chaotic situation. Ultimately, what matters most is the welfare of the people. Excerpts

Controversy: “If you eat GMO and die, it’s better than not eating at all and dying,”said Kabir Ibrahim, President, Nigerian Agribusiness Group. This was exactly the sentiment expressed by this reporter’s former lecturer’s boss in a food processing factory in England. According to him, the cans of food were usually passed under UV light for a few seconds to sterilize them.

Unfortunately, that batch stayed too long under the UV light and so was not fit for consumption. Instead of discarding them, the white boss said they should ship them to Africa because Africans were dying of starvation but with the unsafe food, they can last for 13 years before dying. This led to his exit from the company.

GM foods: Hybrid vs Transgenic modification

According to Dr Jackie Ikeotuonye, CEO of BFA Integrative Health and Wellness Clinic and a Fellow of the Association of Integrative Medicine Practitioners: “When you talk about GMOs, people politicize it, they call you ‘anti-science and anti-biotechnology. We want to grow with technology but the problem is what we’re doing in Nigeria. Food concerns everybody. We’re talking about transgenic organisms. When you cross organisms that are taxonomically different, there’s a problem. When you take genes from an animal and put into a plant, you’re already breaking the boundaries of nature. Ethically, that is wrong. In a normal situation, a fish cannot mate tomato but we are breaking these boundaries in the name of science; and people are not talking about the outcome in future.”

Prof. Louis Egwari, professor of Microbiology at Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, agrees that there are ethical issues with GMOs but “you have to weigh the options. That is where the regulators come in. All in all, it is good but it has its own shortcomings and the consequences may not be immediate but again, they are part of the evolution of man. In many of these technologies coming up, we use germ plasm and the way nature came to be was through the seed. The life of the flesh is in the blood and the life of the fruit is in the seed so it is seeds that give birth but now, you are taking any component of the fruit to produce new life which doesn’t last.”

For Prof. Cyril Otoikhian, professor of Genetics at Novena University, Ogume, Delta State: “Classifying an organism as a genetically modified organism, GMO, is fraud because what they did was not genetic modification; I saw a bag on which was written: Tela maize hybrid. Hybrid has a father and a mother that give birth to the child but GMOs do not have.”

Mr. Tunde Banjoko, MD of B. O Farms Ltd and Chairman, Agric Group of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry noted that “with hybrid, you are bringing two things of the same species to improve the quality, but with GMOs, you are introducing something completely new, like seedless orange. We should start doing things properly to allay the fears of people. Some of the things we buy like cornflakes are made from imported GM maize approved by the Federal Government, FG.”

Why GM foods?

According to the former DG of the National Biosafety Management Agency, NBMA, Dr. Rufus Ebegba in an earlier interview with Vanguard: “The purpose of genetic modification is for benefit; the benefit must not be less than the initial benefit of the organism already in existence. It must not be at variance with our cultural values. For instance, where you have Moslems who don’t eat pork and you take a gene from a pig and put into a goat that everyone eats, people will say it is against their culture/religion. We ensure we have enough knowledge to be able to analyse every GM food.”

Prof. Cordelia Ebenebe, professor of Animal Science at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, believes that genetic modification of food is the way to go, all things being equal. According to her: “The original intention of genetic modification of foods was to increase yield/size of food and fruits, resist disease germs, become climate-tolerant, sweeten some fruits and reduce maturity time.

“GM foods would have been the best strategy to checkmate food insecurity in the world, but recent reports are signs it has been hijacked by some individuals and weaponized for selfish interest. The idea of GM plants not producing seeds for further propagation is scary, not to talk of its effect on the soil.”

But Prof. Nkiru Meludu, professor of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, and a Food and Nutrition Security specialist at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, disagrees, saying that GM food is not needed to make Nigeria food-sufficient as organic farming can achieve that.

“People are asking whether organic farming can feed the world; it’s feeding the world and it will feed the world. It is better to produce non-poisonous foods through the value chain and then people will eat well and live long. Apart from health, the international community is looking up to third world countries, because they feel our lands are not really polluted so we can practise organic agriculture. Sometime ago, some people tried to export some farm produce, they were returned because of the pesticide load in them but we eat them here!”

Organic agriculture

“Organic agriculture is simply the farming system devoid of the use of synthetic chemicals. It follows the principles of ecology, care of the environment, the ecosystem, farmers and consumers are all involved and must be well taken care of to produce foods good enough for consumption.

“In the past, farmers usually kept seeds from their harvest for the next farming season but in a bid to make more profit, some companies went into what they originally called Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs; now they have gone into foods.

“I was at a training in Netherlands where they were discussing this issue so I asked them whether they use GM seeds in Netherlands; they said no, they are banned. I asked if they use it in their animal production, they said no. So I asked them why they should talk about it in a positive way! They said it is not totally bad but so many countries are not signing it, even in Africa,” said Meludu.

In the same vein, Health Of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF’s Programs Manager, Cadmus Enade at a program in June 2024 said: “Agro-ecology farming system which is in line with nature, to promote food sovereignty and sufficiency, has been abandoned due to FG’s GMO initiative. We have discovered that GMO is harmful to people’s health and well-being, the environment, animals and biodiversity. The ecosystem has been destroyed massively with the application of chemicals.”

Both the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, and HOMEF appealed to the FG to suspend the GMO initiative to reduce the negative effect on people.

Potential harms

Dr. Ebegba listed the potential harms that can be caused by GMOs to include environmental, health and socio-economic concerns. “The risk assessment being carried out is to ensure that GMOs do not have the ability to become super organisms that will affect other organisms.

“We ensure it does not become so dominant as to destroy other organisms. We also ensure that if it is genetically-modified to be resistant to a particular pest, that pest should be the only one it is resistant to; it must not affect other insects. It must not cause health hazards; it must not develop any toxin that will affect human and animal health, humans and animals must not become allergic to it or have any negative reactions in the body. So toxicity and allergenicity must be avoided.

“We also look at the socio-economic concerns. For instance, if it is a GM maize or rice, you must ensure that the price is not exorbitant; it can command economic value to the nation and it must not affect Nigeria’s trade partners by reducing patronage,” he said.

On her part, the NAFDAC DG, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye assured Nigerians that GM foods are “not inherently harmful to human health, provided they meet established safety standards.” She said NAFDAC works in collaboration with the NBMA which has the “mandate to ensure that GM foods are of quality, safe, and efficacious. Without them certifying that they have done their due diligence, we cannot approve,” she stated; emphasizing that approved products in the market undergo strict safety evaluations.

Food shortage

On the real cause of food shortage, Zimbabwean activist, Consultant and Social entrepreneur, Rutendo Matinyarare said it is neither drought nor a result of retrieving of farms from White farmers and giving them to Black farmers.

“The truth is that it used to cost a small scale black farmer in Zimbabwe zero cents and just labour, to produce one hectare of food but today, these farmers were persuaded by companies like Seedco, to get rid of their traditional seeds and were given these GM/hybrid seeds that do not reproduce or continue to have reducing reproduction until they stop reproducing. Now, the farmer doesn’t have the traditional seeds so every season, he must buy new seeds which need fertilizers and chemicals to grow so the farmer must buy new seeds, fertilizer and pesticides every season.

Now, to produce one hectare costs a farmer nothing less than US$250. Again, all the graduates teaching our people how to farm come from an education system created by the very same organisations that are selling these seeds and chemicals. That’s why we will continue to produce food unsustainably listening to these graduates.

“These organisations want to control food in the world and ensure that Africa comes into food colonialism. These chemicals destroy our soils and destroy Africa’s ability to produce food.”
Concurring with Matinyarare, Ikeotuonye said: “Food shortage is not our problem. We can grow our food. We must support farmers with healthy seeds, infrastructure to reduce post-harvest losses and deal with insecurity.

For instance, what is happening with ginger is pure sabotage. There’s a lot going on.”

Not GMOs but fraud

Speaking from the place of knowledge as a geneticist, Otoikhian said: “The process of producing GMOs is a scientific fraud; it has nothing to do with agriculture. If a process can’t reproduce itself, how will it serve as food? It means that the producers will continue to produce whatever they are producing.” He challenged the proponents to come out with the complete process and procedure of producing GMOs “which I know because I am a geneticist, then I will explain to them the fraud in what they have classified as GMOs.”

Said Ikeotuonye: “GMOs are pesticides designed to kill unwanted insects, weeds, rodents, and fungi. Many pesticides endanger human health and damage the ecosystem. The beans we just released are modified to produce their own pesticides so that the pests that attack plants will not attack them. That might sound good but there are implications on human health. Any plant that can produce its own pesticide is automatically a pesticide. So these plants in a normal situation can’t pass NAFDAC’s definition of food; that is why NAFDAC doesn’t regulate GM foods, the NBMA does. NAFDAC has their clear definition of food so you cannot tell us that GM beans is food when there’s a clear definition of what a pesticide is.

Matters arising

Effect on health, environment

Continuing, Ikeotuonye said: “In a supermarket, you see foods made with genetically engineered ingredients. What actually got us very upset in Nigeria is the fact that in some countries, when they started GMOs, they started with peaches and apples but in Nigeria, they started with the staple foods; the ones that everybody eats – rice, beans, cassava, maize. We need to apply some brakes, just as the House of Representatives requested. Let’s even understand what is going on.

Monsanto has over 100,000 litigations in the US and they are paying because people developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a result of the herbicide.

“I’ve seen videos of people using herbicides to prevent weevils from getting into their beans and rice. That means they’re directly applying pesticides to our foods in the market. The active ingredient in the herbicide is glyphosate.”

She believes that the problem is not with biotechnology but with transgenic modification of foods. “There are advances in medicine that are beneficial; fermented products like kunu, yoghurt etc., are products of biotechnology. Insulin is a product of biotechnology which has helped save the lives of diabetics.

“Normally farmers save seeds. When you see seeds that are not doing well, you can cross the species to get a higher yield. But where you take genes from an animal and put in plants, there are health and ethical implications. Every seed/plant must reproduce after its kind, so I can cross corn with corn; two tomato species to get a better yield, no problem. But where I take genes from a pig and put inside a plant, there’s a problem. It is against the law of nature and every law of nature you obey has a reward and every one you disobey comes with consequences.

The consequences are part of what we’re seeing in our soil degradation. The reality is this: As you’re splashing glyphosate everywhere, it will affect nearby farms. Our laws are very weak. In a country like Germany, if your GMO farm contaminates a non-GMO farm, you pay a heavy fine running into millions of dollars so farmers are very careful.

“We’ve been on this since 2011/2012. I became a farmer growing beans, maize and other vegetables just to create alternatives. Seeds are the foundation of human and animal life on earth; whoever controls your seed controls your life. Two, you are what you eat; three, let your food be your medicine. That’s what the father of medicine, Hippocrates, said.

GM foods and diseases

Prof. Ebenebe harped on the “need for research that will validate GMOs as the reason for the ill effects, as is being alleged.”

“People fall sick and die every day, so how are you sure that somebody died because of GMO? Can we really trace the ailments to GM products?” Banjoko asked.

Reacting, Ikeotuonye said: “I run a hospital and I know the kind of diseases we see on a daily basis. You’re not going to literally link a hypertensive 18-year-old boy’s condition to GMO; nobody’s going to buy that. But we need to look at glyphosate. If I take your blood sample now to the lab, I promise you, I can get glyphosate residues in the blood sample. That’s why I encourage people to do nutritional profile. If you have eaten mostly junk foods made from imported corn, soy etc, in the past two weeks, I can assure you 89% that you have glyphosate residue in your system. Glyphosate is the herbicide used for growing GM crops. Farmers use it to kill weeds. You must use it if you are planting GM seeds. Nigerians are using it on their farms now, but organic farmers don’t use it.”

Seeds can’t be replanted/dependence on foreigners for seed

For Dr. Faruk Mudi, national president of AFAN, farmers need to be enlightened. “If I’m going to plant GM seed, I need to know what it is and then I choose either GM or organic seed. Also, people are afraid that you cannot replant GM seeds as is done with organic seeds and so, we have to depend on other countries for seed; that means they will control us. If they control the seed sector, they control the entire agric sector. If they increase the price of seeds and we cannot afford it, we borrow to buy seeds or else, we go out of business.”

“The problem for the farmer is that each time he needs the seed, he goes back to the source. I went to Benin Republic and bought some nice-looking pawpaw, the tree was very short with about 20 heavy fruits on it. I planted the seeds and got very little but not the same size again and by the third year, I got nothing. So they require you to go back to them and pay again for the seeds,” noted Meludu.

Sharing her experience, Ikeotuonye said: “In GM farming, farmers are supposed to be registered because you don’t replant the seeds. I planted GM beans because I don’t just talk from theory, I needed to be hands-on. Now when you replant the seeds, it gives you beautiful leaves, no beans.

The whole idea is for you to go back and keep buying the seeds. Who owns these seeds? No Nigerian owns any seed that we’re planting. It belongs to multinationals. Does it make any sense to put our lives in the hands of foreigners? queried Ikeotuonye.

Explaining why GM seeds cannot be replanted, Matinyarare said: “They create GM and hybrid seeds in the lab to ensure that they do not reproduce in the following seasons after you have planted the first seeds you bought. They use something called a Terminator gene or Genetic use restriction technology that makes a seed not reproduce once it has produced for the first time.

Also, when you grow these seeds in your soil and they start producing flowers, the flowers are able to cross-pollinate or drift and pollinate organic seeds already found in Africa and turn them into GM seeds so that they also have this Terminator gene to stop African farmers from re-growing their food for next season.”

Regulation

Banjoko appealed to those saddled with the responsibility of our health to speak and reassure us about the concerns.

“The Tela maize approved by the FG was not brought to us, we participated in that process for close to six years. The NBMA verifies and validates these products and NAFDAC stamps what we eat.

It takes the NBMA about six months to give approval; is that long enough? Israel was working on some mangoes recently and they said it may take 15 years to get it together,” said Banjoko.

“There are institutions and agencies promoting GMOs but our job at the NBMA is to regulate. We are supposed to be an unbiased umpire; so we ensure you follow our laws and if our laws are breached, we take the offender to court as it concerns NBMA Act of 2015. The penalty is five years imprisonment or N2.5m fine or both, depending on the discretion of the judge. People think we are promoting GMO technology because we are granting permit; if we are not sure of the safety, we will not grant permit because the interest of Nigeria, the environment and the health of the people are paramount.

“We have a GMO detection lab where we can analyse any GMO to find out whether it contains materials we do not want and also to confirm whether an organism is genetically-modified or not. We have the capacity and well trained staff to ensure that this sector is properly regulated,” said Ebegba.

GMO and world population

Otoikhian cautioned people to make categorical statements only in areas where they are knowledgeable.

“I get sick when people who don’t even have the slightest knowledge of genetics start making conclusive statements about a genetic process. You are producing genetic crops – no father, no mother, then all you see is fruit and a syringe to input certain materials that will be transferred to humans.

“When I said that the so-called GMOs cannot reproduce themselves, people called me names but today, they have come to the understanding that from the process the establishments engaged in producing GMOs have given to us, there is nothing genetic in it. Rather, it is a physical human effort to actualise a personal interest. I have challenged them to give me a confirmed GMO and I will show you the devil inside that is meant to reduce world population.

Genetics is not like other courses; it is definite, it is straight and it is real. It is either genetic or not.

“When COVID came, I made a direct statement that it will come in stages – GMO is another phase and more will come. It is time the media brought everyone with views to a roundtable and let’s discuss GMOs and Virus trading; then I will know that we are serious about protecting humanity.

The world is heading for a doom; dead bodies will litter streets in Africa because we don’t think at all,” Otoikhian said.

The post Producing GMOs scientific fraud; not agriculture —Prof. Cyril Otoikhian appeared first on Vanguard News.