“Tuggar Blasts Canadian Politician: ‘They Want To Break Up Nigeria Like Sudan’”

According to Ireporter Online, a heated exchange occurred on Piers Morgan’s programme on Tuesday as Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, confronted former Canadian lawmaker Goldie Ghamari over claims of widespread persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

Tuggar appeared on the show to dispute allegations of genocide, challenge circulating statistics, and provide what he described as a more accurate account of Nigeria’s security challenges. The programme opened with figures from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, which claimed that over 50,000 Christians had been killed since 2009 and more than 18,000 churches destroyed.

Tuggar dismissed these numbers as inaccurate, emphasizing that the government does not categorize victims by religion and treats all lives equally. He cited official data showing that only 177 Christians had been killed and 102 churches attacked in the last five years.

The discussion escalated when Ghamari accused the Nigerian government of quietly enabling a “form of jihad” and alleged ideological motivations tied to the faith of President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima. She further claimed that Nigeria maintains clandestine ties with Iran and criticized schoolchildren for holding images of the Iranian leader.

Tuggar countered by describing Ghamari’s comments as ignorant and dismissing her statements as baseless. He stressed that Nigerians prioritize regional balance over religion and condemned attacks by Islamist militants, sharing that he personally lost family members to Boko Haram. He emphasized that the group targets both Muslims and Christians indiscriminately.

Responding to Ghamari, Tuggar accused foreign actors of seeking to destabilize Nigeria, comparing their actions to attempts to divide Sudan and South Sudan. He labeled such interventions as opportunistic, profit-driven, and disconnected from the realities on the ground, asserting that efforts to divide Nigeria would fail given the country’s size, democratic structure, and role as a regional stabilizer.

The interview concluded shortly after Tuggar’s remarks, with Morgan ending the programme.