The Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, has dismissed as false a social media video alleging that the institution was involved in developing a nuclear weapon for Nigeria.
The university’s Director of Public Affairs, Malam Auwalu Umar, issued a statement to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday.
He described the viral AI-generated video as misleading and aimed at misinforming the public about Nigeria’s peaceful nuclear energy program.
The video falsely claimed that Nigerian scientists secretly enriched weapons-grade uranium in Kaduna in the 1980s and that ABU researchers obtained it.
According to Umar, most ABU scientists at the Centre for Energy Research and Training (CERT) were still undergoing training abroad in the 1980s, making it impossible for them to participate in uranium enrichment.
The director also stated that ABU had no connection to the AQ Khan network and had never received equipment for centrifuge or nuclear device construction.
He stated that by 1987, the university’s only nuclear facility was a 14 MeV neutron generator, which began operations in 1988.
“Nigeria’s first nuclear reactor (NIRR-1) was established much later in 1996 under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Cooperation Programme and commissioned in 2004,” he said.
Umar said Nigeria’s nuclear operations have always been open and pursued purely for peaceful reasons, in compliance with the country’s commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Pelindaba Treaty, which prohibit the creation of nuclear weapons.
He reaffirmed that “The Centre for Energy Research and Training, established in 1976, operates in collaboration with the IAEA and international partners from the US, Russia, and China.”
Umar also explained that the center has never engaged in any secret weapons program.
“ABU has always pursued peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology for national development.
“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 U.S. in 1960, two years before ABU was established.
“The management, therefore, restated its commitment to advancing science and technology for the benefit of humanity and to upholding Nigeria’s international obligations on the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” he said.
