Nigeria joined the list of countries demanding a swift end to the illegal blockade of Qatar, which began four months ago on June 5.

Nigeria called for the Saudi-led blockade to be lifted saying it is against such extreme measures that cause hardship, reported Gulf Times.

Foreign minister Geoffrey Onyeama said his country was approached by both sides to support them in the dispute. But it had decided that the blockade was ‘not the way to go’.

Nigeria’s call for an end to the row came after most of the African countries opted to stay neutral.

Saudi Arabia’s search for support in North Africa has failed with Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya deciding not to take sides.

Onyeama took issue with the main planks of the Saudi case against Qatar — Al Jazeera, Iran and terrorism.

“As a country, we don’t have an issue with Al Jazeera. We’ve a policy in this country of freedom of information. We don’t really believe as a government in interfering with the media,” he said.

“As of now, there’s nothing that has been brought to the attention of the Nigerian government showing definitively that Al Jazeera is promoting terrorism. To call for the shutting down of a station, especially one with such a profile as Al Jazeera, we haven’t seen anything to lead us to believe that this is the way to go.”

He said Nigeria has not seen any evidence to support a blockade of Qatar and, on that basis, it should be called off because it was only causing hardship.

“The measures that have been taken are very extreme. Maybe they just don’t like Qatar doing its own thing, but that’s for them to say.

“We feel that the hardship that’s caused to ordinary Qataris and others is most unfortunate and our position has been that we would invite them to an international forum where they talk to each other. The air blockade, and things like that, is a bit extreme.

"Qatar is a very small country and the alliance against it is much bigger and there’s tremendous pressure being exerted. But they’re brothers, more or less, the Gulf states. There must be some other way of sorting out their issues,” the foreign minister added.

Photo courtesy: Nigerian Monitor