Residents visit the site of a US airstrike in Jabo, Nigeria, December 26, 2025 (Tunde Omolehin/AP)

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I joined Poland’s TVP World on Saturday to analyze the Trump Administration’s “demonstration strikes” on northwest Nigeria.

The Administration claimed it had hit Islamic State camps, and Trump blustered that he was acting against those “viciously” killing and targeting Christians at levels unseen for “centuries”.

I cut through that misleading rhetoric by setting out the facts. The airstrikes were on the Sokoto region, far from the presence of ISIS and the Boko Haram group in northeast Nigeria. The large majority of the region’s population is Muslim. And while they are threatened by the Lakuwara armed faction, residents said the US strikes inflicted no casualties, let alone the destruction of camps claimed by the American military.

So what is the significance here? I explain that the Trump camp was probably trying to whip up “Christian nationalism”, responding to demands from some US legislators and activists for attacks, while diverting from issues such as the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

And I consider that while the Nigerian Government and many people agree on the need to confront Islamist factions and bandits inflicting violence, they will not want any sectarian conflict whipped up by the Trumpists.