Tuggar, Canadian Politician Clash On Piers Morgan Show Over ‘Christian Genocide In Nigeria’ [Video]

A heated exchange played out on Piers Morgan’s show when Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister, Yusuf Tuggar, and former Canadian lawmaker Goldie Ghamari clashed over claims that Christians are being persecution in Nigeria.

Tuggar appeared on the Tuesday edition of the show to push back against the allegations, challenge the numbers being quoted, and explain the country’s wider security troubles.

At the start of the interview, Morgan referenced figures from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), which alleged that more than 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009 and that 18,000 churches have been destroyed.

Tuggar rejected those figures, saying the government does not categorise victims by religion and treats all casualties as Nigerians.

When Morgan asked for Nigeria’s own data, the minister said records from the last five years show 177 Christian deaths and 102 church attacks.

The encounter intensified after Morgan introduced Ghamari as a second guest, who argued that the violence in Nigeria amounts to a jihad and drew comparisons with the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

She also claimed the shared faith of President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima was proof of an Islamist-leaning government.

Ghamari went further, alleging ties between Nigeria’s government and Iran, and accused Tuggar of misleading the public.

She claimed she could tell when a politician is “avoiding the truth” and said the minister’s comments fit that pattern.

“By the way, this is a government that is working closely behind the scenes with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“You should ask the foreign minister why Nigerian school children are holding pictures of the Ayatollah who is a brutal dictator and is murdering my people in Iran,” she said.

“People need to look into the linkages between the current Nigerian government and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“I was a politician for seven years, Piers, and I can tell when someone is lying and avoiding the truth. That’s exactly what this foreign minister is doing and shame on him for lying.”

Tuggar dismissed her claims, calling them uninformed and accusing her of treating the situation in Nigeria as if it were a distant political game.

He said Nigerians pay more attention to regional diversity in leadership than to religious identity, noting that Tinubu is from the south while Shettima comes from the north.

When Morgan asked whether he condemned attacks carried out by Islamist groups, Tuggar said he did, adding that he had personally lost relatives including his father-in-law to Boko Haram violence.

He stressed that the extremist group targeted both Muslims and Christians, and that Muslims who reject their ideology are often their primary victims.

“I lost my father-in-law to an attack by an Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, so I myself I’m a victim. I’ve lost family members to attacks and they were Muslims,” the minister said.

“But it doesn’t matter whether they’re Muslim or Christian because their aim is to kill, to maim, so that they would achieve their objectives. And the number one enemy of Boko Haram is not a Christian. It is a Muslim who does not subscribe to their own brand of Islam.”

Ghamari maintained her stance, saying the killing of Muslims does not “negate the fact that there is a targeted ethnic cleansing of Christians in Nigeria”.

Tuggar responded sharply, accusing her of stoking conflict in countries she knows little about.

He argued that she would not recognise the difference between Nigeria’s major ethnic groups and accused her of promoting narratives that could destabilise the country, the same way, he said, international actors contributed to the breakup of Sudan.

He argued that Nigeria, as Africa’s most populous democracy and a country known for absorbing migrants and practising religious freedom, should not be reduced to a political project for outsiders who “don’t care who dies.”

The minister said people like Ghamari profit from fuelling division and urged her to “move on to her next project,” calling her a disgrace to Canada.

“People like her trade in starting wars in far away places where they have no contact, they have no understanding of, and they can do that from their armchairs from a safe distance. It’s a real life situation,” Tuggar said.

“This lady would not know the difference between a Fulani man, a Tiv man, an Igbo man if they stood in front of her.

“But you can see clearly overnight because it pays. She’s probably making money out of it. She is out there trying to start a war.

“They want to break up Nigeria the same way they broke up Sudan and now they’ve run away. She’s not talking about Sudan anymore. She’s not talking about South Sudan. I bet she was one of those that was agitating for Sudan to be dismembered.

“This is what they do. This is what they try to do to Africa. Nigeria is the largest country on the African continent. It is the largest shock absorber to the African continent in terms of admitting migrants, in terms of freedom of religion. It’s Africa’s largest democracy.

“But people like you who don’t really care about freedoms, about the freedoms of either Christians or Muslims or Africans will continue to agitate for the break up of Nigeria for war the same way that it’s happening in South Sudan and you’ve kept mum because you’ve moved on.

“You don’t care about the loss of lives. For you, it’s just another black country to be broken up. You don’t care who dies.

“It’s not going to happen to Nigeria. Move on to your next project. You’re a disgrace. You’re a disgrace to the Canadian nation. I’m shocked that you say that you actually practice as a politician in Canada. Move on to the next episode. Leave us alone.”

Piers Morgan ended the interview shortly after the fiery exchange.

Watch the video below:

KanyiDaily recalls that American rapper Nicki Minaj also claimed that Christians in Nigeria “are being targeted, driven from their homes, and killed”.