AN EXAMINATION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS (GMFs) IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Achieving food self-sufficiency and maintaining a balance of citizens’ right to health are challenges which many countries in Africa, including Nigeria are struggling with. A citizen’s right to health encompasses a right to healthy, nutritious and affordable food. How this food is cultivated and made available to the general growing population underpins the genetically modified food controversies. The approval of genetically modified foods is one way the Nigerian government is tackling the issue of hunger and food insecurity which is exacerbated by the Boko haram insurgency that has led to the loss of farmlands and livestock. Genetically Modified crops are acclaimed to increase crop production, combat the negative effects of climate change and promote the elimination of hunger and poverty since food essentially is money. However, critics of Genetically Modified Foods (GMFs) have raised health and safety concerns to the effect that GMFs are not the silver bullets to the raging food insecurity in Nigeria. Some have even called for the total ban of GMFs in Nigeria. Relying on the doctrinal research methodology, this paper investigated the human rights implications of GMFs in Nigeria and found that GMFs have been in existence for a very long time. It further found that one way or another, majority of Nigerians may have consumed GMFs as a result of heavy reliance on the consumption of imported foods in the country and that it is not easy to ascertain how such imported foods were cultivated. Therefore, the paper recommended that paramountcy to citizens’ right to health implies that the government focus more on risk assessment of GM crops, as well as their regulation and control to better protect the citizens.