By Innocent osuoha
Thousands of teachers in Imo State yesterday (22/5/14) thronged the streets of Owerri protesting the abduction of over 200 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State on the 14th of April, 2014.
The teachers, all who wore black attire, carried placards with various inscriptions and singing sorrowful tunes in which they lamented the plight of the abducted girls.
The peaceful demonstration took the teachers to the Ikemba Ojukwu centre, NTA Owerri, IBC Owerri, Douglas Street and finally the Government House Owerri. Some of the placards they carried read “Boko Haram is a curse to Nigeria”, “Nigeria keep moving, no going back” and “We will not rest until our daughters are released”.
In an interview with Trumpeta, the state chairman Imo NUT, Dr Cletus Okeke disclosed that apart from the over 200 girls abducted, the teachers are also mourning the death of about 173 teachers so far eliminated in the Boko Haram human decimation.
Dr Okeke thanked the international community for enlisting in the Salvation Army to bring back the girls and paid special tribute to the United States of America, Britain, France, State of Israel as well as all the African leaders for their commitment and pledge to bring back the girls through the use of their known intelligence and superior military technology.
Also speaking, the chairman NLC Imo State and also the Assistant Secretary General of Imo NUT, Chief Reginald Anyadike called on the Nigerian government to declare a state of total emergency in the education sector and expressed the importance for insurance cover for both students and teachers.
He described education as the only proud industry the teachers have while the innocent school boys and girls are the raw materials the teachers process for the human resource development of the nation.
However, on a lighter note, as soon as the demonstrating teachers got to the Douglas Souvenir building near the Government House, some of the female teachers changed direction and started haggling prices of wares with the petty traders who had shades near the Government House exhibiting adult and children shoes, undies and food stuffs amongst other items that attracted their attention.
