[size=14pt]Maurice Iwu And The Sale of Nigeria’s Collective Inheritance
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By Chika A. Ezeanya


The year was 2002, three years before his appointment as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). University of Bradford trained; Professor Maurice Iwu secured US Patent application number #6,403, 576 for the extracts of five species of Nigerian plants, proven by the local population to be of medicinal value.

The US Patent application was published for Aframomum aulocacarpus, Aframomum danelli, Dracena arborea, Eupatorium odoratum, Glossocalyx brevipes and Napoleonaea imperialis. Iwu, together with five other co -researchers claim in the application that the plant species are indicated for the treatment of fungal infections and elimination of parasites in humans and animals. Iwu and his cohorts put up the patent for sale in the global pharmaceutical research and development market. It is not known how much money accrued to Professor Iwu from the deal; royalty payments on patents could sometimes run into several million dollars.


Chika A. Ezeanya

Prior to the 2002 transaction, Professor Iwu had in 1991 obtained patent for the medicinal uses of a yam specie found in Nigeria, for Shaman Pharmaceuticals a now bankrupt US bio-prospecting company. In 1994, a year after he left his position as Professor of Pharmacognosy at the University of Nigeria, Iwu was listed as co-inventor of several Nigerian medicinal plants whose patent has been sold to the US Army.

The extent of Professor Iwu’s treachery and its grave implications for Nigeria can only be fully understood within the workings of the global intellectual property laws covering patents, copyrights, and others. The World Trade Organization (WTO) rules governing intellectual property rights stipulate that when a patent is filed for a product in one country, effective from the date of filing, similar patent must not be filed in any other country by another patentee. What this principle translates to, is that although the extracts of certain plants exclusive to Nigeria such as uziza, gbogiri or ugu leaves, are proven to be efficacious by the local communities in the treatment of anaemia, the patenting of such by a pharmaceutical company in the United States grants that company exclusive rights over the development and commercial use of uziza, gbogiri and ugu. From the date of the patent filing, therefore, Government of Nigeria, must, as a matter of a binding agreement entered into as one of the WTO signatories, desist from profiteering from the plant in question through research or commercialization of its healing potentials. Patent laws protect the expression as well as the idea, its implementation and or dissemination. Only the patent holder is granted the right to make, the right to use, the right to sell, and the right to authorize others to sell the patented idea. Professor Maurice Iwu has technically denied Nigeria and Nigerians any possibility of ever developing or profiteering from the patents he secured, choosing to profit exclusively from them.

Professor Iwu is not alone in this drive towards the sale of Nigeria’s biodiversity to the West for personal gains. Several Nigerian scientists, researchers, students and ordinary citizens, resident and in the Diaspora have been known to collude with Western interests in selling off the plant resources of the country. Professor Iwu’s act could, however, be considered more treasonable. Maurice Iwu was the United Nation’s Lead Consultant for the development of Nigeria’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. The position granted him unlimited access to the rich medicinal indigenous knowledge of the country; he was sworn in to utilize his expertise in crafting laws towards their protection. Professor Iwu has also served on the board of the Fund for Integrated Rural Development and Traditional Medicine. In the 1990s, he attended several Conventions on Biological Diversity meetings as a representative of the Nigerian government, where the focus was on protecting indigenous knowledge from Western exploiters. Professor Iwu can never claim ignorance of, nor excuse the grossly subversive nature of his actions in patenting Nigeria’s common heritage.

Moreover, the very idea of patenting Nigeria’s indigenous knowledge of plant medicinal properties is inherently contradictory to what patent represents. The most notable requirement of patent is that the invention defined in the claim for patent protection must be new or novel. A patent claim is invalidated if the invention was publicly known prior to the time of invention stated on the application. Another notable requirement of patent is the principle of non obviousness, which stipulates that the invention must not be obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the relevant art at the time the claim was filed. In this sense, since the medicinal usage of the plant was already known to the indigenous Nigerian communities using them, it is neither novel nor non-obvious, therefore, Professor Iwu and his cohorts do not have any right to appropriate such “common” knowledge for their personal enrichment.

http://www.saharareporters.com/article/maurice-iwu-and-sale-nigeria%E2%80%99s-collective-inheritance

Dem don bash this lady like fire in Sahara reports. May be she didn't check her facts very well before attacking Iwu. Iwu is a very brilliant academician but he certainly sucks at leadership.