A New York Times report has revealed how the United States relied on data from Emeka Umeagbalasi, a screwdrivers and wrenches seller in Onitsha to carry out its recent Airstrike in Nigeria.
According to a New York Times report, Emeka Umeagbalasi who works as a Christian activist helped shape a narrative that reached the highest levels of U.S. politics.
The founder of the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), has claimed that as many as 125,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009, a figure that has been repeatedly cited by U.S. Republican lawmakers, including Senator Ted Cruz, Representative Riley Moore and Representative Chris Smith, in arguing that Christians are being systematically targeted in Nigeria.
US Airstrike in Nigeria
On Christmas Day, President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes in northwestern Nigeria, a decision the White House linked to what it described as the “massacre of Christians by radical, terrorist scum.”
However, an investigation by The New York Times found that Umeagbalasi’s data is largely unverified and heavily reliant on secondary sources. In interviews, he acknowledged that he rarely confirms figures independently, instead drawing from Christian advocacy groups, Nigerian media reports and internet searches.
Critics say such assumptions distort the nature of Nigeria’s violence, which is driven by a mix of Islamist insurgency, criminal banditry, farmer–herder clashes and weak state security. Both Christians and Muslims are among the victims.
Alkasim Abdulkadir, a spokesman for Nigeria’s foreign minister, described Umeagbalasi’s work as deeply flawed and biased. “There’s a lot of fallacy to his research,” he said, adding that it relies on confirmation bias rather than verified evidence.
Despite the criticism, Umeagbalasi remains undeterred. From his home office in Onitsha, he continues to compile reports warning that Christians in Nigeria are approaching a “point of no return,” citing figures that researchers say cannot be independently verified.