Abuja – The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John
Cardinal Onaiyekan has advised the Federal Government to examine
Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) before accepting it in the
country.
Onaiyekan gave the advice on the sideline of a 2-Day National
Conference on “Good Governance and Genetically Modified Organism
(GMO)’’ on Wednesday in Abuja.
“All these new inventions they have good aspects but they also can
have negative aspects.
“On the surface, it will look nice that you can get bigger yams and
bigger potatoes and so on; on the surface it looks like that, but then
you have to find out at what cost because very often the chemical or
genetical modification may bring other consequences which you did not
envisage.
“The Church is always for science now, but science must be well
guided because it is not all scientific invention that is good for
humanity.
“Government should be alert and judge each case in its own merit and
take advices from people like these who are talking about the matter
and listen.
“And not just jump into whatever is presented to them by people who
may have their own reasons.
“But the part of it that worries me is that if GMO means that my
farmers in the village are rendered redundant, then it is bad.’’
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Nigerian Biosafety
Management Act, which was signed in 2015, allows the use of GMOs in the
country. (NAN)
