Agency Report
Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has dismissed as false a viral social media video claiming that the institution was involved in developing nuclear weapons for Nigeria.
The university’s Director, Public Affairs Directorate, Auwalu Umar, stated this in a release issued to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Zaria.
Mr Umar described the AI-generated video as misleading and aimed at misinforming the public about Nigeria’s peaceful nuclear energy programme.
According to him, the video falsely alleged that Nigerian scientists in the 1980s secretly enriched weapons-grade uranium in Kaduna and that ABU researchers obtained centrifuge equipment from the AQ Khan network in Pakistan.
“The claim is baseless, unfounded, and unsubstantiated,” he said.
He explained 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 been involved in uranium enrichment.
Mr Umar added that ABU had no connection with the AQ Khan network and had never received any equipment for constructing a centrifuge or nuclear device.
He clarified that by 1987, the only nuclear-related facility at the university was a 14 MeV Neutron Generator, which became operational 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.
The university spokesman emphasised that Nigeria’s nuclear activities had always been open and conducted strictly for peaceful purposes in line with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Pelindaba Treaty, which prohibit the development of nuclear weapons.
He further 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.
“The centre has never engaged in any secret weapons programme,” he said, adding that ABU had always focused on peaceful applications of nuclear science for national development.
Mr Umar recalled that ABU’s founder, the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, had shown 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’s establishment.
He assured that the university remains committed to advancing science and technology for the benefit of humanity while upholding Nigeria’s international obligations on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.