Jonathan will sign Bio-safety Bill into Law soon – Official

President Goodluck Jonathan would soon assent to the Bio-safety Bill, an official of the National Biotechnogy Development Agency (NABDA) said.

Mrs Rose Gidado, Head, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology of the agency, gave the assurance in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday

` `We are still at the Presidency; the bill is still with Mr President, any moment he will sign it.

NAN recalls that recently, the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) said it was collaborating with the relevant institutions to ensure that the Nigerian Biosafety Bill was signed into law before 2017.

It will also be recalled that in January, Prof. Bamidele Solomon, NABDA's Director General,hinted that the bill will be signed before the end of 2013.

Gidado, however, said that there were positive signs that the bill would be signed even sooner.

``Two months ago, we got the information that Mr President had written to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice seeking his position on the bill.

``The attorney General wrote very positively; although I did not see what he wrote but I was made to understand that he wrote very positively for Mr President to assent to the bill.

``The ball is now in Mr President’s court, so we hope that he will sign it any moment from now.”

She acknowledged that although the agency was just a biotechnology promotion organisation, it could still function as a regulatory agency if necessary structures were put in place.

Gidado, however, stressed that the most important thing was for the bill to be assented to by the president and not necessarily who regulates or promotes biotechnology in Nigeria.

She said that Nigeria was already involved in some confined trials of genetically modified crops, one of which was sorghum, which she explained, was being fortified with Vitamin A, Iron and Zinc.

Gidado said that it was already undergoing the third confined trial after which it would be tested for a couple of years to be sure the genes were expressed in the right quantity and safe.

``In the next three months, we may be harvesting that because we are crossing the genetically modified ones with the local varieties so we can have them in our own preferred variety.

``We do not want to bring something from outside and give it to them; what if it fails. So, once the genes are expressed to have Vitamin A, Iron and Zinc, then we move on from there.”

Source : #‎NAN