Yusuf Tuggar, the minister of foreign affairs, and Goldie Ghamari, a former Canadian member of parliament, got into a heated argument on Piers Morgan’s show regarding claims of Christian persecution in Nigeria.
Tuggar made an appearance on the Tuesday-airing program to refute the assertions, provide context, explain numbers, and discuss Nigeria’s intricate security issue.
Morgan presented statistics from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) throughout the opening sixteen minutes of the conversation, asserting that since 2009, over 50,000 Christians have been slaughtered in Nigeria and 18,000 churches have been destroyed.
Tuggar contested the religious framing and rejected the data, claiming that the government does not count deaths based on religion and prioritises all victims as Nigerians.
Morgan presented statistics from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) throughout the opening sixteen minutes of the conversation, asserting that since 2009, over 50,000 Christians have been slaughtered in Nigeria and 18,000 churches have been destroyed.
Tuggar contested the religious framing and rejected the data, claiming that the government does not count deaths based on religion and prioritises all victims as Nigerians.
When asked for statistics, the minister continued by saying that just 102 churches had been assaulted and 177 Christians had died in Nigeria over the previous five years.
When Morgan invited Ghamari as a second guest, the temperature rose a few degrees Celsius.
Drawing a connection to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, the Canadian politician and talk show personality claimed that Nigeria’s insecurity is a type of jihad.
Additionally, she pointed to President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima’s shared Islamic beliefs as “evidence” of an Islamist government that is involved in the insecurity crisis.
“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.”
‘YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO CANADA’
Tuggar characterised Ghamari’s speech as waffling and referred to her remarks as an act of ignorance.
The former Canadian MP, he claimed, was sitting far away and treating Nigerians’ lives like a game.
Regarding Tinubu and Shettima’s religious beliefs, the minister stated that Nigerians prioritise regional harmony over religion. Shettima is from the north, and Tinubu is from the south.
Asked by Morgan if he condemned the attack on Christians by Islamist militants, Tuggar replied in the affirmative.
“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.”
“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 of Ghamari in response.
“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.
“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.”
Join Our Social Media Channels:
WhatsApp: NaijaEyes
Facebook: NaijaEyes
Twitter: NaijaEyes
Instagram: NaijaEyes
TikTok: NaijaEyes
