Piers Morgan’s set went up in flames on Tuesday as Nigeria’s foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, and former Canadian MP, Goldie Ghamari, clashed in one of the show’s most explosive segments yet, trading accusations, slamming statistics, and unleashing fiery tirades over claims of Christian persecution in Nigeria.
Morgan opened the battle with Intersociety’s claim that 50,000 Christians have been killed and 18,000 churches destroyed in Nigeria since 2009.
Tuggar immediately rejected the figures, dismissing the religious framing and insisting that Nigeria does not count victims by faith — every death is a Nigerian death.
When pressed, he said the actual numbers were far lower: 177 Christians killed and 102 churches attacked in the last five years. But the interview erupted the moment Ghamari entered the debate.
The former Canadian lawmaker charged in like a wrecking ball, accusing Nigeria’s crisis of being part of a jihad, linking it to the October 7 Hamas attack, and even suggesting the shared Islamic faith of President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima was proof of a complicit government.
Then she dropped a bomb, saying, “By the way, this is a government that is working closely behind the scenes with the Islamic Republic of Iran…”
She accused Tuggar of lying, declaring:
“Shame on him for lying.”
Tuggar hit back with force. He called her statements ignorant, blasted her for trivialising Nigerian lives, and accused her of spewing armchair commentary from thousands of miles away. He argued that Nigerians care far more about regional balance than religion when choosing leaders.
When Morgan asked if he condemned Islamist attacks on Christians, Tuggar offered a deeply personal answer:
“I lost my father-in-law to an attack by an Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram… I’ve lost family members… and they were Muslims.”
He added, “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 refused to yield, saying the killing of Muslims does not “negate” what she described as a targeted ethnic cleansing of Christians.
That was the spark for Tuggar’s full-blown explosion.
He accused her of fuelling conflict from afar, saying, “People like her trade in starting wars in far away places… from their armchairs… It’s a real life situation.”
“She would not know the difference between a Fulani man, a Tiv man, an Igbo man…”
“She’s probably making money out of it.”
“She’s trying to start a war.”
“She’s a disgrace… Move on to your next project,” his takedown intensified:
Tuggar declared she did not care who died, accused her of trying to break up Nigeria like Sudan, and told her to “move on to the next episode.”
