NUT orders closure of schools nationwide to protest Chibok abduction

Following the abduction of over 230 students in Chibok, Borno state, the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) has ordered the closure of primary and secondary schools nationwide to protest their kidnap.

This was made public today in Abuja by the President of the Union, Michael Olukoya who explained that rallies will be organised simultaneously on Thursday across all states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Olukoya said: “The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has resolved to hold “Bring back our girls” rallies simultaneously across the 36 States and the FCT on Thursday 22nd May, 2014.

“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. 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,” he said.

Mr. Olukoya said the Union had hoped that the news of the abduction was some kind of joke until they were faced with the grim reality of the situation.

“Education is the bedrock of the Civil Society and the abduction of Chibok girls and the attack on the school system is an exercise in reactionarism which is attempting to return our nation to the Hobessian State of nature where lives was described as brutish, nasty and short.

“We had received the news of the abduction as “a tale from wonderland” – a social and religious grandstanding, not real but designed to politically hoodwink the nation and therefore hoping that in matter of days, the reality would dawn on the nation that the story would qualify for its April fool of the month of April,” he said.

Mr. Olukoya disclosed that about 173 have been lost to the Boko Haram insurgency with 170 casualties in Borno and others in Yobe.

“The NUT, on behalf of the entire teachers of Nigeria, commiserates with the families of our late colleagues and pray that the Almighty God grants them the fortitude and the large heart to bear the irreparable loss of their loved ones and breadwinners. And for our departed colleagues, may God grant them eternal rest,” he said.

-Yonline