Politics
THE Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has received the National Bioethics Documents which were officially handed over to him by Prof Abdullahi Mustapha, Director-General of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA).
The Minister received the documents in his office on Thursday in Abuja.
Making the handover, Mustapha prayed that the minister should ensure that the committee was statutorily incorporated into government through its inauguration.
The NABDA DG said that the National bioethics Policy and framework documents were necessary for the establishment of the National Bioethics Committee in Nigeria.
He disclosed that the drive for the establishment of the National Bioethics Committee began in 2009, and its formation was long overdue.
He said that Nigeria is a member state of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), since 1960, was expected to have a National Bioethics Committee.
According to him, “up till this moment, Nigeria is yet to establish a national bioethics committee.’’
However, Mustapha noted that to ensure that this committee was established, the Federal Government had invited UNESCO to provide it the information required for its establishment and process of initiation.
He said that the National Bioethics Committee became an important organ of every society with the rapid advances in science, technology, medicine, life sciences, biotechnology, as well as societal changes.
Accordingly, he maintained that the field of bioethics was a complex one with multidisciplinary faces, informing the reason many international organizations put in efforts to establish, enhance, and reinforce the committee.
Prof Mustapha stressed that the absence of the committee presented Nigeria as a vulnerable state without an institution to deliberate and advise the government and policymakers on critical ethical issues facing the country.
He mentioned these issues to include Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, militancy and piracy in the South, farmers and herdsmen problems, the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccine, among others.
“The lack of a National Bioethics Committee has also denied Nigeria the support it would have gotten from the Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Ethics Network (PHEPREN).’’ he said.
The NABDA boss emphasized that the PHEPREN was willing to support Nigeria by helping to respond to the ethical challenges presented by COVID-19 as well funds from UNESCO and other member states.
Responding, Onu commended UNESCO for the work it had done and the level it had gotten to in regard to the National Bioethics Policy and Framework documents.
The minister said that the Bioethics Committee was very important and expressed happiness that the basic work, the policy, and the framework were already available.
“We will work very hard to ensure that the national bioethics committee is established in the country because that committee will be the umbrella for all ethics-related committees in the nation.
“This is very important because it has a tremendous impact in various sectors, in health, environment, defense, virtually in all aspects of societal work.
“The National Bioethics Committee will work hard to help restore human dignity to all Nigerians, which is very important, so we can no longer delay it,’’ the Minister said.
He regretted that the establishment of the committee did not happen 61 years ago when it was supposed to happen, expressing optimism that through hard work, it would be quickly concluded.
Onu also congratulated Adeleke University in Ede, Osun State, for placing Nigeria on the map of countries developing vaccines.
He said the team had been working toward developing a vaccine for the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to solve this major global problem.
“This means that we have the manpower and all that we need as a nation to start solving our major national problems,’’ he said.
The minister was also positive that all the things Nigeria had been relying on other countries to bring into the country could indigenously be produced in Nigeria.(NAN)
– Feb. 11, 2021 @ 16:45 GMT
Tags: Minister receives national bioethics documents for statutory incorporation and establishment
