ZARIA — Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has strongly refuted a viral social media video alleging the institution is involved in developing a secret nuclear weapon for Nigeria.
In a statement issued to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, Malam Auwalu Umar, the university’s Director of Public Affairs, described the AI-generated video as “baseless, unfounded, and unsubstantiated,” aimed at misinforming the public.
The video falsely claimed that Nigerian scientists secretly enriched weapons-grade uranium in Kaduna during the 1980s and that ABU researchers obtained centrifugal equipment from Pakistan’s AQ Khan network.
Umar systematically dismantled these claims, pointing out that most of ABU’s scientists at the Centre for Energy Research and Training (CERT) were still undergoing training abroad in the 1980s. He categorically denied any connection to the AQ Khan network, stating ABU “had never received any equipment for the construction of a centrifuge or nuclear device.”
He clarified the university’s actual nuclear timeline:
By 1987, the only nuclear facility at ABU was a 14 MeV Neutron Generator, which became operational in 1988.
Nigeria’s first nuclear reactor (NIRR-1) was established much later in 1996 and commissioned in 2004, under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Cooperation Programme.
Umar emphasized that Nigeria’s nuclear activities have always been transparent and “pursued strictly for peaceful purposes,” in line with the country’s obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Pelindaba Treaty.
He reaffirmed that CERT, established in 1976, “has never engaged in any secret weapons programme” and operates in close collaboration with the IAEA and international partners from the US, Russia, and China.
The director noted that the university’s focus on peaceful atomic research was inspired by its founder, Sir Ahmadu Bello, who visited the Museum of Atomic Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. in 1960, two years before ABU was established.
“The management… 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,” the statement concluded.
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