Nigerian teachers have gone on strike and staged rallies nationwide on Thursday in protest against the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by the Boko Haram sect and the killing of nearly as many teachers during its insurgency.
The President of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT, Micheal Olukoya, said that the sect had killed 173 teachers over five years.
In Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, where the insurgency has been most intense, around 40 teachers marched down a street to the office of Governor Kashim Shettima, chanting “bring back our girls” and holding placards saying “vulnerable schools should be fenced”.
Governor Shettima came to the gates of the compound to meet the teachers, who were clothed in black union vests over their long, flowing traditional robes and were escorted by the military.
In Lagos State, around 350 teachers gathered at the Gani Fawehinmi Park.
Public schools in the nation’s capital city, Abuja, however, remained opened in defiance of the directive by the Nigeria Union of Teachers.
Some teachers who spoke to Channels Television said that they were not issued with letters directing the closure of schools.
This follows two days of bloody attacks in the country, in which nearly 150 people have been killed.
