Emeka Umeagbalasi, a tool merchant operating out of a market in Onitsha, Anambra State, has become an unlikely driver of United States foreign policy regarding Nigeria.
Despite his primary trade as a seller of screwdrivers and wrenches, his self-published reports alleging a systematic genocide against Nigerian Christians have been adopted by influential American lawmakers to shape narratives around the country’s internal security crisis.
Okay News gathered that Umeagbalasi’s data was referenced by prominent Republican figures, including Senator Ted Cruz, and reportedly played a role in President Donald Trump’s decision to authorize airstrikes in Nigeria on Christmas Day.
While Umeagbalasi views this ‘high-level’ recognition as a validation of his advocacy, the reliance on his figures has raised serious questions among international observers and journalists regarding the accuracy of the intelligence informing US actions.
Investigations into Umeagbalasi’s methods reveal that his statistics are largely derived from secondary sources, such as internet searches and third-party media reports, rather than direct fieldwork.
Umeagbalasi admitted to classifying victims as Christian based primarily on their geographic location, a methodology that security experts argue is flawed and ignores the complex reality that violence in the affected regions often claims the lives of both Muslims and Christians indiscriminately.
