The Federal High Court of Justice, sitting in Abuja on the Wednesday, August 15, 2018, struck out a suit instituted by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and 16 other civil society organisations (CSOs) against some government establishments relating to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) due to technicalities.

The Judge, in delivering his judgment, opined that although the plaintiffs have a Cause of Action in the matter, the court’s hands are however tied due to one of the objections raised by the defendants – the suit is statute barred.

According to the Judge, it is a contravention of the provisions of the Public Officers Act, which states that any action instituted against a public officer as regards his/her discharge of duties must be instituted within three months, after the said breach occurred.

The suit, with No: FHC/ABJ/C5/846/2017, was said to have been brought a year after the permits had been issued.

HOMEF, in a statement made available to EnviroNews, expressed displeasure at the judgement, describing it as “a fall back on efforts to preserve the nation’s food system from being overturned by the agricultural biotech industry”.

The registered Trustees of HOMEF and 16 other CSOs in September 2017 filed the lawsuit against the Nigerian Biosafety Management Agency (NABMA), the Minister of Environment, Monsanto Agricultural Nigeria Limited, National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Minister of Agriculture, Attorney General of the Federation and National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) over permits granted for GMO products.

In the summons which was taken out by Ifeanyi Nwankwere of Basilea Juris Associates, the plaintiffs insisted that the 1st defendant did not comply with the provisions of the National Biosafety Management Agency Act in granting the permits to the 3rd and 4th defendants. The CSOs asserted that the procedure and issuance of the permits flouts and threatens the fundamental human rights of the people as enshrined in section 33, 34, 36 and 39 of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria as amended in 2011.

Other issues which the plaintiffs brought forward were that NABDA, said to be a part of the governing Board of NBMA, in its application did not state adequate measures put in place to prevent cross pollination with natural varieties during field trials, and that NBMA granted the permits without any public hearing regardless of the consequential issues raised in objections sent in by the Plaintiffs.

HOMEF maintained that agricultural biotechnology along with its current advances come with specific risks both immediate and long-term and require thorough safety assessments.

Nnimmo Bassey, environmental activist and Director at HOMEF, said: “Nigeria’s present regulatory architecture cannot ensure food and environmental safety as shown by the manner in which the National Biosafety Management Agency handles GMO applications. One troubling example is the case of genetically modified maize varieties which were illegally shipped into country by WACOT Nig. Ltd. in September 2017. The agency after announcing that together with the Nigerian customs service they would ensure that the illegal seeds were repatriated approved an application by this company to import these products over a period of three years, barely a month after its announcement that illegal maize should be repatriated. This action contradicts the biosafety law which requires 270 days notice before imports to allow for adequate safety assessments.”

Bassey emphasised that “the only essence of genetically modified crops is for the economic benefit of the biotechnology corporations and their counterparts and not the interest of Nigeria.  With the release of these products into the environment, the damage will be irreversible, and the current economic strength of Nigeria cannot afford that damage.”

The activist added further in the statement that the court ruling encourages “administrative rascality and constant disregard for public interest and due process”.

According to HOMEF, while the case awaited judgment, the defendants, NBMA, Monsanto and NABDA on July 26 registered and released the Bt cotton varieties (MRC 7377 BG11 and MRC 7361 BG11) along with other GM products into the Nigerian environment. These cotton varieties, the group adds, refer to the same cotton MON 15985 in the suit as evident on the website of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA).

“The health and economic welfare of all Nigerians, which constitutes our fundamental rights, are at risk if GMOs are allowed in the country. Nigerians must be aware that we are neither respected nor protected,” he warned.

But Dr Rufus Ebegba, head of the NBMA, described the judgement as a victory for Nigerians, and a manifestation of the judiciary as a beacon of hope and justice.

His words: “The NBMA is much more encouraged to continue due dilligence in ensuring that Nigerians are protected from any potential adverse effect in the regulation of modern biotechnology and its products. However, this shows that our biosafety system is working. I urge Nigerians to trust the NBMA and not be distracted by fear mongering.”

According to him, NBMA remains an umpire in the regulation of GMOs, even as he assured that, with the Agency on ground, the safety of their health and environment would continually be its number one responsibility.

Also reacting to the court ruling, Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, lawyer and chair of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), said in the statement that it would have been in the interest of justice to grant the reliefs set out on the face of the summons as, according to her, the case represented not just consumers safety but the survival of  millions of small scale farmers whose livelihoods are threatened by the corporate takeover of food systems in the guise of agricultural biotechnology.

“We hope that when the impacts of GMOs set in, the government of Nigeria will not say ‘we were not informed or warned about the impacts of GMOs’,” she declared, adding:

“The civil society coalition is of strong conviction that this is a cause worth fighting and would continue to seek redress. The organisations pledge not to relent in pushing the case for food safety and food sovereignty in Nigeria. They have pledged to continue to resist attempts by Monsanto, its international and local partners to control our food, land, life and democracy.”

A team of researchers from the University of Maryland, the State University of New York and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre has found that new global tree growth over the past 35 years has more than offset global tree cover losses.

In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes using satellite data to track forest growth and loss over the past 35 years and what they found by doing so.

There has been a growing consensus in recent years that, because humans cut down so many trees (most particularly in the rainforests), the global tree cover is shrinking.

In this new effort, the researchers have found that not to be the case. They contend that global tree cover is actually increasing.

To track global tree cover changes, the researchers studied data from advanced and very high-resolution radiometers aboard a series of 16 weather satellites covering the years 1982 to 2016.

By comparing daily readings, the researchers were able to see small changes occurring regularly over a relatively long period of time – which added up to large changes. Over the entire span, the researchers found that new tree cover had offset tree cover loss by approximately 2.24 million square kilometres – which they note is approximately the size of Texas and Alaska combined.

The researchers report that most of the new tree cover occurred in places that had previously been barren, such as in deserts, tundra areas, on mountains, in cities and in other non-vegetated land. They further report that much of the new growth came about due to efforts by humans (such as reforestation efforts in China and parts of Africa) and because of global warming – warmer temperatures have raised timberlines in some mountainous regions and allowed forests to creep into tundra areas. Other areas of new tree growth resulted from large farm abandonments in places like Russia and the U.S.

The researchers report that their calculations showed that human activities have directly caused approximately 60 percent of new global tree growth. They suggest their technique for monitoring tree cover could be used to predict tree cover changes in the future due to global warming.

The National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN) says the cultivation of biotechnology cotton seeds by farmers in the country will be made optional.

President of the association, Mr Anibe Achimugu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday, August 14, 2018 that two varieties of biotechnology cotton which had been released for commercialisation were currently undergoing farm demonstration trials.

He expressed optimism that the biotech cotton varieties would be distributed to farmers in the next planting season, adding that farmer would be presented with the option of planting the conventional seeds (organic) or the biotech cotton seeds.

“With the introduction of biotechnology cotton seeds, two varieties that have been approved for commercialisation right now.

“They have told us that we should expect up to four tonnes per hectare and that was conducted by the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), the only institute mandated to work on cotton in Nigeria for release.

“Those two varieties are being tested under normal farming conditions.

“It is not in a laboratory but demonstration fields by farmers, so we believe that with what will happen this year by next year, I am not saying that there will be 67,000 farmers that will be farming biotech cotton.

“It is not for us to insist that farmers should farm biotech cotton, but we want to be able to say to a farmer for instance, if you want to do organic cotton which has a premium price in the international market, please go ahead.

“IAR will provide the conventional seed, the non-biotech seeds so we want to encourage IAR, we want government to fund IAR for them to have the capacity to improve the quality of their seeds, to produce more.”

chimugu said that cotton farmers were currently producing 450 to 500 kilogrammes of cotton per hectare as against some West African countries and neighbours that were doing an average of 1.2 tonnes per hectare.

He listed some of the challenges currently faced by cotton farmers to include lack of quality seeds, climate change and lack of irrigation facilities.

“The immediate challenge is poor quality seeds available for farmers.

“What we have are tired conventional seeds that ideally should not be planted more than three times, but they are in the hands of farmers for 4 to 10 times, so you can’t expect to get good yields from that and that is why we have poor yields,’’ he said.

He appealed to the government to adopt cotton as a national asset adding that the sector could employ youths, generate wealth and earn foreign exchange for the country.

By Ginika Okoye