The Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, has backtracked on her agency’s stand on the safety of Genetically Modified Organisms.
In a widely watched interview last year on Arise television, Newsnight with Chris Ogodo, she said GM foods are not safe:
“In terms of GMO, we do not think it is safe. We don’t.
It is not safe for our consumption. That’s the stand of NAFDAC.
A lot of research has not been done in terms of safety of GMO products, and the genetics of the food has been modified.”
Then, on 7 August, 2025, on Channels television Sunrise Daily, she said:
“GMOs are genetically modified food, when it comes to food.
They are not bad for us. They are not, depending on what type of food they are, when the safety considerations have been taken.”
The fact is that the regulatory body for GMOs in Nigeria is the National Biodiversity Management Agency, NBMA, and the promoter is the National Biotechnology Development Agency, NABDA.
The duty of NAFDAC is to guarantee the proper labelling of all GM products before they get to the market.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, regulates GMO, and Department of Agriculture, USDA, approves the labelling before it goes on sale and is allowed for public consumption.
The NBMA has approved four varieties of Tela maize, which the government of Nigeria has upheld, and are in use in 2025. They are resistant to stem borers and army worm insects and increases yield by 10 tonnes a hectare.
Genetic Use Restriction Technology, GURT, seeds or the so-called terminator seeds or suicide seeds, which cannot be re-planted are banned in Nigeria by NBMA.
The approved Tela maize varieties are non-GURT seeds.
The correct statement on the truth about GM foods in Nigeria by NAFDAC is most welcome by the scientific community already facing criticism and rejection by ordinary people who, unduly, fear that GMO causes cancer and even contains sterility agents to de-populate Africa.
