Nigerian teachers stage nationwide rallies over Boko Haram's deadly terror campaign against children and colleagues.
Nigerian teachers have held a strike and staged rallies nationwide to protest against the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram and the killing of nearly as many teachers during its insurgency.
Gunmen from the Islamist group stormed a school outside the remote north-eastern town of Chibok on 14 April, carting away some 270 girls in trucks. More than 50 have escaped but at least 200 remain in captivity, as do scores of girls kidnapped previously.
The president of the National Union of Teachers, Michael Alogba-Olukoya, told reporters Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates as "western education is sinful", had killed 173 teachers in the past five years. "All schools nationwide shall be closed as the day will be our day of protest against the abduction of the Chibok female students and the heartless murder of the 173 teachers," he said.
In Maiduguri, capital of the north-eastern state of Borno, where the insurgency is most intense, some 40 teachers marched to the office of Governor Kashim Shettima. The demonstrators chanted: "Bring back our girls" and waved placards reading: "Vulnerable schools should be fenced".
Shettima went to the gates of the compound to speak to the teachers, who wore black union vests over their traditional robes and were escorted by the army.
President Goodluck Jonathan and the military have come under intense criticism for their slow reaction to the mass abductions, although last week Nigeria accepted help from the US, UK, France and China. The US has deployed about 80 military personnel to Chad in its effort to help find the girls, President Barack Obama told Congress on Wednesday.
Boko Haram has threatened to sell the schoolgirls into slavery, but has also offered to swap them for jailed militants. The group wants to create a breakaway Islamic state in the Muslim and Christian country of 170 million people. Its militants have attacked hundreds of schools, killing hundreds of teachers and students. No teachers were killed in the Chibok attack.
"We remain resolute in our resolve to continue the campaign even as we mourn the death of our colleagues until our girls are brought back safe and alive and the perpetrators of the heinous crime are brought to book," Alogba-Olukoya said.
In Lagos, Nigeria's southern commercial metropolis of 21 million people, approximately 350 teachers gathered in Gani Fawehinmi park. One carried a placard reading: "You can't intimidate us." "Children's lives are being threatened; kidnappings all over the place; stealing, maiming of life – that's what we are saying should stop," Ojo Veronica, a teacher, told Reuters TV.
The Chibok kidnapping has drawn international attention to Nigeria and Boko Haram, much of it driven by the #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign, which has been supported by Michelle Obama and Angelina Jolie.
The Boko Haram insurgency has killed an estimated 5,000 people since an initial uprising in 2009.
