INVESTIGATION: Toxic Tactics: US govt funds pesticide/GM propaganda in Nigeria

Abdulkareem Mojeed, Elena DeBre and Margot Gibbs

In Nigeria, the question of what role, if any, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and heavy pesticide usage should play in helping to address food security and climatic challenges has been a focal point of debate, following the recent commercialisation of four GM seeds by the government. Yet, Nigeria remains one of the top importers of pesticides in Africa and has become a leader in GMO crop approvals on the continent.

A new investigation led by the PREMIUM TIMES with Lighthouse Reports and other media partners reveals how the US government has been working behind the scenes to facilitate GMO crop approvals and downplay the dangers of pesticides in Nigeria.

Through reviewing government contracts, funding documents, and interviews of dozens of sources, this investigation reveals that the US government has been financing a public relations operation that discredited environmentalists who raised concerns about GM and pesticide risks around the world, including several prominent environmentalists in Nigeria.

The United State’s development arm, USAID, denies directing funds to campaigns on pesticide regulations and said that its GM programme, “promotes functional regulatory systems, but does not endorse regulatory decisions regarding specific products.”

GMO/pesticide concerns in Nigeria

GM crops are grown from seeds whose genomes have been lab-edited to produce desirable traits, including ]resistance to certain viruses, bacteria, or herbicides. Some studies have found that GMOs can lead to higher crop yields.

GMOs are widely used in the US, where Monsanto, the world’s largest seller of GM seeds, is based. (The firm was sold to Germany’s Bayer in 2018). US development policy has promoted the adoption of the technology as a way of addressing food security.

Environmentalists and scientists say that most GM crops have been designed for use alongside herbicides, most commonly glyphosate, the weedkiller first patented by Monsanto. Glyphosate is the world’s most heavily used herbicide, and in 2015 it was classified as a probable human carcinogen by the World Health Organisation. Concerns have also emerged over the risks GMOs pose to traditional farming methods, growers’ rights to purchase seeds and environmental biodiversity.

In Nigeria, efforts to address existing concerns hovering around GMO commercialisation and indiscriminate pesticide usage by smallholder farmers, who are the country’s major producers of food commodities, have remained negligible and ineffective over the past decade.

A PREMIUM TIMES investigation in 2022 revealed that while many farmers were enthusiastic about being part of GM trials, many had little knowledge of what the crops were and the environmental risks associated with their use.

Derogatory profiling of Nigerians

The US government played a significant role in Nigeria’s adoption of GMOs. It funded a global public relations operation to downplay the risks of pesticides and GM crops while discrediting those warning of their dangers, including several prominent Nigerians.

To do this, the US government contracted a US reputation management firm, v-Fluence, to build a private social network to counter opposition to pesticides and GMO crops in Africa, Asia and Europe, according to this cross-border investigation, led by Lighthouse Reports.

The network, Bonus Eventus, was created in 2014 and named after the Roman God of Agriculture and meaning “Good Outcome” in Latin. It hosts over 500 profiles of individuals deemed to be critics of industrial agriculture, including scientists, journalists, and two UN special rapporteurs.

Environmental justice campaigner Nnimmo Bassey and the 2023 Lagos State governorship candidate Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party are among the prominent Nigerians who are profiled.

The Bonus Eventus private network was built with funds from the same US government programme that supported legislation to enable the commercialisation of GM crop technology in Nigeria.

More than 1,000 people have access to the private network. The members include dozens of employees of agrichemical companies and many government officials who work for national biosafety regulators.

The profiles inside are often derogatory, contain personal details, and even feature information contested by public documents and news articles seen by the investigation.

Mr Bassey, the director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), an environmental think-tank firm headquartered in the capital of Edo State, Benin City, has a profile with disparaging details.

The profile alleges that an organisation Mr Bassey co-founded had accused him of “engaging in fraud and misrepresentation” and that he was “found guilty by a Nigerian court and ordered to stop representing himself as affiliated with the NGO,” Friends of the Earth Nigeria (called Environmental Rights Action), as a result.

In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES and Lighthouse Reports, Mr Bassey described the allegations as “misinformation”. He clarified that the 2020 lawsuit lodged against him was dismissed by the court as baseless. This was confirmed through reviewed court documents and media reports released at the time, yet this was not included in his profile.

Mr Bassey’s profile also says he “collaborated with and promoted the works of those trained in the former Soviet Union.” In response, Mr Bassey described the allegation as “laughable”, saying that “The chemical industry would always be happy to package falsehood to find favour – this is absolutely ridiculous.”

While Mr Bassey said that he would expect such profiling to come from the agrochemical industry, he was concerned to hear of the role of the US government.

“To me, what is disturbing is that the governments, which should protect the lives of people, would invest in people who do hatchet jobs and try to use that to expose Nigerians to the risks of GMOs,” he said. “I’m surprised that the US government would pay attention to such false information.”

‘GMO promotion fund’

The US government was a powerful force – and funder – behind Nigeria’s regulatory embrace of GM crops. A USAID programme helped facilitate the Nigerian government’s rollout of GMOs in the country. At the same time, this USAID programme was funding the creation of ‘Bonus Eventus’ that discredited civil society groups/leaders criticising such a move.

According to government documents reviewed in the course of this investigation, USAID gave the US PR firm, v-Fluence, more than $400,000 via a sub-contract between 2013 and 2019 to promote positive messaging around GM crops, counter those who opposed it, and build a “private social network” to host their work.

According to US public spending reports reviewed, the contracts listed Nigeria among several African countries where v-Fluence would focus its efforts.

The head of v-Fluence, Jay Byrne, denied any past or current contracts with the US government but said that the US government does fund “other organisations with whom we work.” Mr Bryne wrote in a statement to Lighthouse Reports. “We’ve had multiple projects funded by the US and other governments.”

In Nigeria, the same USAID programme funding v-Fluence’s work was also supporting the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA). The NBMA is an agency domiciled in the environment ministry and saddled with the mandate to provide a regulatory framework, and institutional and administrative mechanisms for safety measures in the application of modern biotechnology in Nigeria with the view to preventing any adverse effect on human health, animals, plants and environment

Consequently, the US government programme reportedly worked to help “catalyse the passage” of the 2015 NBMA Act, establishing the framework for introducing GM crops into the country and giving the agency the ability to assess and approve GMOs in the country. From 2016 to 2019, USAID granted the NBMA over $200,000 to support their GM work, our investigation shows.

According to the payment records, NBMA was paid over $20,000 in 2016, $50,000 in 2017, over $100,000 in 2018 and over $20,000 in 2019 to support GM campaigns in the country.

When confronted with these findings, the NBMA in an email response said it acts are “void of external influence in its decisions and determinations.”

However, the agency acknowledged that it worked with “international agencies that align with our statutory mandate” on the 2015 NBMA Act “in the areas of knowledge sharing” and for the speedy realisation of the Agency’s mandate.”

A spokesperson for USAID said that its GM programme, “provides technical and capacity development support to partner-country biosafety regulatory agencies who seek to develop robust, functional regulatory systems to oversee use of agricultural biotechnologies.”

v-Fluence works to silence critics

Nnimmo Bassey’s foundation, HOMEF, sued the NBMA to stop commercialising GM crops in the country, claiming they had been approved without the required environmental tests and consultations with the public.

The Federal High Court in Abuja struck out the case because the deadline to take legal action had expired. The NBMA granted the Nigerian subsidiary of the agrochemical giant Monsanto (now Bayer) permission to release GM cotton onto the market a year after the agency’s biosafety bill was passed.

The PR firm behind Bonus Eventus, v-Fluence, has close ties with both USAID and Monsanto. v-Fluence’s founder, Mr Byrne, was a former communications executive for Monsanto and a former spokesperson for USAID.

Both Mr Byrne and v-Fluence are being sued in the US for suppressing information that linked Syngenta’s leading herbicide, paraquat, to the neurodegenerative disease Parkinson’s. Mr Byrne has denied the allegations, saying that they are based on claims which are “manufactured and false.”

People who have expressed concerns about the health risks of pesticides and GMOs, like Nnimmo Bassey, are profiled on v-Fluence’s Bonus Eventus network. These profiles criticise their careers and cast doubts on their credibility.

Another profile is about Charles Anudu, a high-powered member of the Nigerian business world who is named as part of the Economic Intelligence Committee of the Presidency, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He founded The Candel Company Limited, an agrochemical developer and distributor in Nigeria, which represents the Monsanto Group (now Bayer) in the country.

His profile in the Bonus Eventus network criticises him as “supporting anti-GMO movements to sustain existing crop chemicals” but notes that this claim is “rumoured, unconfirmed.” The profile links to three of his personal social media pages.

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party candidate in Lagos State, who finished second to the incumbent governor in the 2023 governorship race in the state, has also been profiled by Bonus Eventus. The profile questions his architecture education at the prestigious US university, the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT).

It states that Mr Rhodes-Vivour “claims to be an MIT architecture school graduate; however, MIT continues to list him as a graduate student without having conveyed a specific degree.”

Mr Byrne asserted in a written statement to Lighthouse Reports that his profiles only use “publicly available and referenced information.” MIT has publicly verified that Mr Rhodes-Vivour indeed obtained a master’s degree from its architecture school, as previously reported by PREMIUM TIMES. PREMIUM TIMES and Lighthouse Reports saw a copy of his MIT diploma (certificate) and transcript.

Mr Rhodes-Vivour, when contacted for comments, described the profiling as “a tactic, a strategy” which the agrochemical industry uses as a “way of diverting people’s attention from the actual issues raised about their products.”

He raised concerns about the “toxication of the environment” and the “effect of human health” brought on by pesticides and GMOs. He expressed frustration that governments and industry are spending resources “attacking” the people warning of these harms rather than working to mitigate them.

A “criticisms” section of Mr Rhodes-Vivour’s profile, alleges that he made “false and unsubstantiated claims about genetically modified foods.” The profile refers to an article by an agricultural journalist, Abdallah el-Kurebe.

Records obtained by this investigation show that Abdallah el-Kurebe is also a member of Bonus Eventus. Mr El-Kurebe confirmed that he registered with Bonus Eventus on 14 April 2014, but said he has “not utilised their services or participated in any of their activities.”

In response to his article being quoted in Mr Rhodes-Vivour’s profile, Mr El-Kurebe wrote, “While my articles may have been referenced by others, this does not imply my endorsement or involvement with those entities.”

Mr El-Kurebe is among 15 Nigerian members of Bonus Eventus, including government regulators and scientists. Another member is the East Africa Regional Coordinator for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, which was in charge of the testing for GM cassava in the country.

Several of the members have associations with the National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency (NBRDA) and include its chief research officer and an assistant director who also works as an official in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment. These members could not be reached for comment.

‘Unthinkable and unethical’

Our reporting found that the Director General and CEO of the Nigerian Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), the Nigerian government agency that used US government funds to roll out GM crops in the country, is listed as a Bonus Eventus member as well.

During an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES and Lighthouse Reports, Agnes Asagbra, NBMA’s Director General/CEO, said that she was recommended by her immediate predecessor, Rufus Ebegba, to sign up to Bonus Eventus as a way “to gather as much information as I could to help me in the execution of my work as the DG of the NBMA.”

Mrs Asagbra said her subscription to the newsletter from Bonus Eventus was a way “to acquaint my knowledge of recent happenings in the modern biotechnology sector.” She argued that it has “in no way influenced my decisions or actions” as NBMA director.

She said she had never been to the Bonus Eventus website. Upon learning of the investigation’s findings, and the profiling of Nigerian citizens on Bonus Eventus, she said in an interview that she condemned v-Fluence’s profiling activities.

“I would categorically say it is wrong,” she said. Mrs Asagaba described the profiling as “unthinkable” and “unethical”.

When asked to comment on the NBMA’s relationship with USAID, and the fact that the NBMA received funding from the same USAID programme that funded the creation of Bonus Eventus, she said, “This situation has shown us that the agency has to be more circumspect in its associations with other organisations going forward.”

After reviewing the investigation’s findings, the NBMA wrote in an email that the agency is part of the sovereign government and, therefore, operates without “external influence in its decisions and determinations.”

While the NBMA acknowledged that some staff received a newsletter from v-Fluence, the agency said staff only did this “to be in tune with global happenings in the sector.” No comment was provided on staff membership of the network.

“The NBMA wishes to also state categorically that it has no affiliation with v-fluence or Jay Byrne,” the agency added.

Legal questions

According to Kazeem Oyinwola, an Abuja-based lawyer at Amofin Solicitors, the Bonus Eventus files on Mr Bassey and others may breach Nigerian privacy laws.

“The NBMA’s collaboration with a network to profile Nigerians who are critical of GMOs and hazardous pesticides raises significant legal concerns under Nigerian law,” he said, citing both the Nigerian Data Protection Act and the Constitution, which guarantees the right to privacy.

The lawyer argued that profiling individuals based on their opinions – especially in a derogatory manner – may not only violate section 37 of the Nigerian constitution, which guarantees the right to privacy but may also violate sections 21 to 34 of the Nigerian Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023 which outline the principles of personal data processing.

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“Profiling without consent also infringes on the rights of the individuals (Data Subjects) concerned as enshrined in sections 34-38 of the NDPA, and may lead to substantial penalties for the agency,” he said.

The lawyer argued that section 39 of the Nigerian constitution safeguards the right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to voice concerns on public matters like GMO adoption.

“Actions by the NBMA that could suppress or disparage these expressions may infringe upon these constitutional rights. As a regulatory body, the NBMA is obligated to maintain objectivity and should not act as an advocacy group,” Mr Oyinwola said.

He said engaging in or being linked to advocacy for GM crop adoption or profiling individuals concerned about GMO safety may expose the NBMA to legal challenges for overstepping its statutory mandate, violating privacy and data protection rights, and infringing on freedom of expression.