Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar’s interview with Piers Morgan’s uncensored show has finally been aired on Tuesday.
The interview posted on YouTube was aired after an initial back and forth, which saw the Nigerian Minister calling out to Morgan to broadcast the exchange in its entirety, without selective editing.
However, Morgan assured Tuggar that the interview would he broadcast without editing or tampering with his speech.
Pan-Atlantic Kompass in this report dives into Tuggar’s interview with Piers Morgan’s Uncensored and extracts the key things;
Tuggar says only 177 Christians were killed, and 102 churches were attacked
Despite various figures on the number of Christians that has lost their lives in Nigeria, Tuggar claimed that the official data of the Nigerian government showed that 177 Christians were killed in the last five years.
Tuggar disputed figures presented by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), which claimed that over 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009, with 18,000 churches destroyed.
Tuggar described these numbers as inaccurate and criticised the framing of the conflict.
According to Tuggar’s interview with Piers Morgan’s Uncensored, 177 Christians have been killed, 98 injured, and seven abducted in the last five years.
He also said 102 churches have been attacked during the same period.
“In the last five years, I can categorically tell you that 177 Christians have been killed. The number of those injured is 98, while seven were abducted,” Tuggar said.
“We are not hiding any facts but, as I said, we don’t go about trying to identify a Nigerian’s faith when they have lost their lives.”
Tuggar said 52 churches have been attacked in the last two years and highlighted that mosques have also been destroyed.
“Nigeria is configured in a way that you have Muslim and Christian populations across the country,” he said, urging a more nuanced understanding of the country’s complex security challenge.
However, this is contrast to the data cited by United States Congressman, Riley Moore.
Moore had said: Nigeria is the deadliest country in the world for Christians and the world stands by silently.
“Since Boko Haram’s insurgency in 2009, more than 50,000 Christians have been murdered and more than 5 million have been displaced.
“Just this year, a priest was kidnapped and murdered on Ash Wednesday. 54 Christians were martyred on Palm Sunday.
“At least 250 priests have been attacked or killed in the last decade. More than 19,000 churches have been attacked or destroyed since 2009– averaging three per day.”
Tuggar, Canadian Politician Clash
Another key point during Tuggar’s interview with Piers Morgan’s Uncensored show came after the minister clashed with Goldie Ghamari, a former Canadian member of parliament, over allegations of Christian persecution in Nigeria.
Ghamari, a Canadian politician and talk-show host fired Tuggar for allegedly covering up the situation in Nigeria, claiming that Nigeria’s insecurity is a form of jihad, drawing a nexus with the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
She also cited the shared Islamic faith of President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima as “evidence” of a complicit Islamist government in the insecurity miasma.
She said: “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.
“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.”
However, Tuggar fired back at Ghamari’s comments, describing them as a “display of ignorance” and dismissing her speech as “waffling.”
He accused the former Canadian MP of sitting far away and treating the lives of Nigerians like a game.
The Nigerian Minister said: “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.
“But it doesn’t matter whether they’re Muslim or Christian because they aim 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 (Ghamari) trade in starting wars in faraway 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
“This lady would not know the difference between a Fulani man, a Tiv man, or 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 breakup 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.”
Pastor Doubles Down on Christian genocide, Says He has Conducted Over 70 Mass Burials
Also, during Tuggar’s interview with Piers Morgan’s Uncensored show, a cleric with the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), Reverend Ezekiel Dachomo doubled down on his claims that Nigeria is witnessing Christian genocide.
Dachomo claimed that he had conducted over 70 mass burials, including a single grave where 501 people were killed in one night.
He alleged that multiple attacks and mass fatalities have been repeatedly downplayed by those in power.
The cleric stated: “Boko Haram was created by many in the hierarchy of the government to remove (former President) Goodluck Jonathan who is a Christian.
“There was a riot in many villages; people relocated. Their target was to kill the Christians because of Goodluck. That was why Goodluck accepted defeat before the result was announced.”
He argued that if former President Jonathan had insisted on challenging the election outcome, “many more Christians in the North would have gone into the grave because it was declared a jihad.”
Dachomo further narrated several incidents he described as systematic attacks on Christian communities in Borno and surrounding states.
He recalled that insurgents frequently targeted worshippers on Sundays, “In Borno, they would go to villages on Sunday and lock Christians inside the church. They poured gasoline and set the church ablaze. All the Christians inside were burnt to death.”
“In another village, they slaughtered all the men in the church, both young and old, then divided the women among themselves and sexual harassment took place.”
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that Tuggar’s interview with Piers Morgan’s Uncensored show comes as United States President Donald Trump announced his decision to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over alleged persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
Trump also threatened military action if the Nigerian government fails to solve the problem.
However, the Nigerian government has continued to deny the allegations, claiming that there is no Christian genocide in the country.
