Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar on Tuesday confronted former Canadian lawmaker Goldie Ghamari over allegations of widespread persecution of Christians in Nigeria during an appearance on Piers Morgan’s programme.
The minister challenged the accuracy of the claims, arguing that the country’s security challenges are more complex than portrayed. He maintained that the figures being circulated do not reflect the government’s official records.
Morgan had opened the discussion by citing statistics from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, which claimed that more than 50,000 Christians had been killed in Nigeria since 2009 and 18,000 churches destroyed. Tuggar rejected the figures, insisting they were misleading and stressing that the government does not classify victims by religion, as all Nigerians affected by violence are regarded equally. He reiterated that the data presented did not align with official documentation.
When pressed by the host to provide verified statistics, Tuggar stated that only 177 Christians had been killed and 102 churches attacked in the last five years. His clarification set the stage for a more heated exchange. The tension grew further when Morgan brought Ghamari into the conversation, marking a turning point in the debate.
Ghamari claimed that Nigeria’s security crisis amounted to jihad and controversially linked it to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. She argued that the religious identity of President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima was evidence of what she called an enabling Islamist administration. She went on to accuse the Nigerian government of working closely with the Islamic Republic of Iran, citing examples she believed showed ideological alignment.
The former lawmaker insisted that deeper investigations were needed into Nigeria’s alleged links with Iran. She accused Tuggar of dishonesty, stating that she could easily identify when someone was avoiding the truth and alleging that the minister was doing so. Her comments further heightened the tension on set as she criticised the government’s stance from afar.
Tuggar dismissed her remarks as uninformed and labelled them hollow rhetoric. He stressed that Nigerians focus on geopolitical balance rather than religion, noting that the president hails from the south while the vice president comes from the north. When asked if he condemned attacks on Christians by Islamist extremists, the minister affirmed that he did and revealed that he had personally lost his father in law to Boko Haram. He emphasised that the extremist group targets Muslims who reject their ideology just as much as Christians, underscoring that the violence affects all communities.