RE: The Screwdriver Salesman Behind Trump’s Airstrikes In Nigeria

 By Franc Utoo

The story told in that New York Times article is not just wrong; it is an injury added to an open wound. It tries to turn survivors into suspects, truth‑tellers into propagandists and a decade of blood into a clever “narrative” to be managed by consultants in Washington and Abuja. 

It will not stand. 

*Trump 

Who really asked America to wake up? 

The article leans into a lazy, convenient fiction: that Nigeria’s designation as a Country of Particular Concern was some side‑effect of Igbo separatist agitation or partisan games in Washington. That is a lie. 

It was not drawn up in an office in Abuja or dreamed up in a back room in DC. It was born in the ashes of burned churches, homes, and in the dust of mass graves. 

- It came from priests who have buried their parishioners by the hundreds, who have watched altars reduced to rubble and sanctuaries turned into slaughterhouses. 

Xtian Genocide In Nigeria: The Screwdriver Salesman Distraction

By Tosin Adeoti

Recently, a narrative spread rapidly across Nigerian media and social platforms. It claimed that the reason President Trump and his advisers authorised airstrikes in Nigeria was information supplied by a “screwdriver salesman” in Onitsha.

The story originated with a New York Times report and was excitedly amplified locally by outlets such as The Cable and The Nation. The framing was deliberate and dismissive. Emeka Umeagbalasi was portrayed primarily as a man who owns a small shop selling screwdrivers and wrenches in a market in the commercial hub of southeast Nigeria. The implication was clear. How could someone like this possibly influence U.S. foreign policy? 

Nigerian Media Should Avoid Government Funding, Aid

 By Chekwube Nzomiwu

During the 21st All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC), held at the Presidential Villa Abuja Banquet Hall recently, the President of Nigerian Guild of Editors, Eze Anaba, raised the alarm that the present economic realities in the country had put the media in distress. Consequently, Anaba who is the Editor of Vanguard Newspapers, asked the government to grant the media corporate tax relief for about ten years, Value Added Tax (VAT) exemption, tax deductions, and access to affordable financing from the Bank of Industry, among other requests.

President Bola Tinubu, the host of the editors endorsed the plethora of requests made by the NGE in a bid to rescue the distressed media sector in the country. The keynote speaker, Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, told the editors that their pen will shape the 2027 election. Uzodimma spoke on the theme “Democratic Governance and National Cohesion: The Role of the Editors and sub-editors,” and “Electoral Integrity and Trust Deficit: What Nigerians should expect in 2027.

Nigeria’s Not Too Big to Fail

By Oseloka H. Obaze

Deciphering Nigeria can be depressing. Interrogating her history and present political trajectory can also be disconcerting. That awkwardness is further complicated by the fact that, in a nation where governance is now rife with propaganda, the truth is always a conspiracy; and truth-tellers, traducers. 

That disposition did not prevent two recent unvarnished and non-salutary New York Times assessment of the state of Nigeria. Both pieces represent a reality check and the proverbial writing on the wall. Despite the pushback by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) government, what is dawning stealthily on Nigerians is that Nigeria’s long-forecast implosion might actually be self-fulfilling. Put differently, Nigeria is not too big to fail.