The outgoing Commissioner of Agriculture of the African Union (AU), Ambassador Josefa Sacko, has stressed that she fought AGAINST the adoption of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in the continent.
She blamed the adoption of GMOs in some African countries on their rights to sovereignty.
Ambassador Josefa, who addressed a press briefing at the 38th Ordinary Session of the AU and General Assembly, declared that wealthy individuals and groups are dolling out resources to promote GMOs.
She said: “I fought any type of initiative or strategy under my mandate in this debate, we are divided, we are not talking in one voice. Some people support it because Bill and Melinda Gates have a lot of money to give them, and some people don’t. In my country, we are not on GMOs and in many countries, we are not on that. So it is really a matter of sovereignty.
“I am leaving my tenure like this because I did not betray my continent. I do not support this GMO, because I want to have a scientific basis.
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“I told my colleagues from South Grant, to open a committee, and give this information to Member States to know the impacts of this GMO. Africa didn’t have the rate of cancer that we had.
“When I was a child we knew that cancer was for rich men, not poor men. Today, almost everybody has cancer. What are the origins of cancer? It’s what we eat, and what we take as a vaccine, even this COVID-19 vaccine, gives a lot of consequences, you cannot produce a vaccine just one day and start injecting it.
“Maybe now that I have retired I will be an activist against GMOs, you can count on it.”
GMOs have been a hot topic in Nigeria since the adoption of Tela Maize, with evident outrage on social media by citizens.
Last year, Deputy Spokesman for the House of Representatives, Phillip Agbese, and several lawmakers expressed their displeasure at the proliferation of the highly controversial GMOs in the country.
Also last week, the Centre for Food Safety and Agricultural Research (CEFSAR) along with other CSOs, urged Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to look into the food security of Nigeria, citing the US-China Economic Review Commission’s report stating concerns of possible attacks through GMOs.