The Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has dismissed as false a viral social media video alleging that the institution was involved in developing a nuclear weapon for Nigeria.
The Director, Public Affairs Directorate of the university, Auwalu Umar, stated this in a release made available to journalists on Saturday, describing the AI-generated video as misleading and aimed at misinforming the public about Nigeria’s peaceful nuclear energy programme.
He said the video falsely claimed that Nigerian scientists in the 1980s secretly enriched weapons-grade uranium in Kaduna and that ABU researchers obtained centrifugal equipment from the AQ Khan network in Pakistan.
Umar described the claims as baseless, unfounded, and unsubstantiated, stressing that most ABU scientists at the Centre for Energy Research and Training (CERT) were still undergoing training abroad during the 1980s and could not have participated in any uranium enrichment.
He further explained that ABU had no connection with the AQ Khan network and had never received any equipment related to the construction of a centrifuge or nuclear device.
According to him, by 1987, the only nuclear facility at the university was a 14 MeV Neutron Generator, which became operational in 1988. He added that Nigeria’s first nuclear reactor, known as NIRR-1, was established much later in 1996 under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Cooperation Programme and commissioned in 2004.
“Nigeria’s nuclear activities have always been open and pursued strictly for peaceful purposes, in line with the country’s obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Pelindaba Treaty, which prohibit the development of nuclear weapons,” Umar said.
He reaffirmed that the Centre for Energy Research and Training, established in 1976, operates in collaboration with the IAEA and international partners from the United States, Russia, and China, and has never engaged in any secret weapons programme.
“ABU has always pursued peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology for national development,” he noted.
Umar added that ABU’s founder, Sir Ahmadu Bello, had demonstrated early interest in peaceful atomic research following his visit to the Museum of Atomic Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States in 1960, two years before the university was established.
He reiterated that the university remains committed to advancing science and technology for the benefit of humanity and upholding Nigeria’s international obligations on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
