PETITION

TO:
The Speaker of the House of Representatives 
The Chairman and Members of the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security 
The National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

SUBJECT:
Immediate Withdrawal of the Nutritionists Registration Council of Nigeria Bill, 2025 (HB.2659)

We, the undersigned citizens, organisations, and defenders of African food sovereignty, strongly oppose the Nutritionists Registration Council of Nigeria Bill, 2025 (HB.2659) in its current form and demand its *immediate withdrawal.

*Why This Bill Must Be Stopped

1. It fails to define “practice of nutrition”

   Yet it criminalises anyone who “practises nutrition” without registration. This vague language can be used against ordinary people who share traditional food knowledge, recipes, or community nutritional guidance — especially if any payment is involved.

2. It threatens indigenous and family-based knowledge

   For generations, Nigerian families, mothers, community elders, and traditional practitioners have transmitted vital knowledge about food, herbs, and healing diets. This Bill provides *no protection* for these systems. Instead, it creates a monopoly controlled by university-trained professionals.

3. It opens the door to foreign control

   The proposed Council can approve foreign curricula, recognise foreign qualifications, and receive unrestricted foreign grants and donations — with almost no safeguards to protect Nigerian food systems and cultural knowledge.

4. It creates harsh criminal penalties

   Unregistered practice can attract fines and imprisonment. Employing or training people outside the new system can attract even heavier penalties. This is excessive and dangerous.

Our Demand

We call on the National Assembly to:

- Withdraw HB.2659 immediately
 
- Refuse to pass any nutrition regulation that criminalises or marginalises traditional, cultural, and family-based food knowledge 

- Ensure that any future regulation of the nutrition profession includes clear protections for indigenous knowledge systems and seats traditional knowledge holders in its governance 

Food is not merely a profession. 
It is culture, heritage, and sovereignty.

We will not accept a law that places Africa’s nutritional heritage at risk of being regulated out of existence.

Signed:

Date 

Call to Action:

Share this petition widely. Sign it. Send it to your Representative. Speak up before this Bill advances further.