ABU nuclear weapon claim dismissed as false; university says viral AI video misinforms the public about Nigeria’s peaceful nuclear programme

Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has dismissed as false a viral AI-generated video alleging that the institution was involved in developing a nuclear weapon for Nigeria.

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In a statement issued to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, the Director of Public Affairs, Malam Auwalu Umar, described the video as misleading and mischievous, insisting it was aimed at spreading misinformation about Nigeria’s peaceful nuclear energy programme.

According to him, the video falsely claimed that Nigerian scientists in the 1980s secretly enriched weapons-grade uranium in Kaduna and that ABU researchers obtained centrifuge equipment from Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan network.

Umar clarified that such allegations were baseless and unsubstantiated, stressing that most ABU scientists at the Centre for Energy Research and Training (CERT) were still undergoing training abroad during that period and could not have been involved in uranium enrichment.

He emphasised that ABU had no connection whatsoever with the A.Q. Khan network and never received any equipment for the construction of a centrifuge or nuclear device.

“By 1987, the only nuclear facility at the university was a 14 MeV Neutron Generator, which became operational in 1988,” Umar explained.

He further noted that Nigeria’s first nuclear reactor, NIRR-1, was established in 1996 under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Cooperation Programme and commissioned in 2004 — long after the period referenced in the viral video.

Umar reaffirmed that Nigeria’s nuclear activities had always been transparent and pursued strictly for peaceful purposes, in accordance with international obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Pelindaba Treaty, which prohibit the development of nuclear weapons.

He stated that the Centre for Energy Research and Training, founded in 1976, operates in partnership with the IAEA and international collaborators from the United States, Russia, and China, focusing solely on peaceful research.

“ABU has always pursued the peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology for national development,” Umar said.

He also recalled that Sir Ahmadu Bello, the university’s founder, had shown early interest in peaceful atomic research following his visit to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. in 1960, two years before ABU was established.

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The university, he said, remains committed to advancing science and technology for humanity’s benefit and to upholding Nigeria’s global commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.