- Title: NIGERIA: Nigerians hold sit-in protest over kidnapped schoolgirls
- Date: 26th May 2014
- Summary: ABUJA, NIGERIA (MAY 26, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CHANTING (English): "BRING BACK OUR GIRLS NOW AND ALIVE!" BANNER READING (English): "RESCUE OUR CHIBOK GIRLS" PROTESTERS HOLDING MEETING (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROTESTER AND LECTURER AT NIGER DELTA UNIVERSITY, EKIYOR WELSON, SAYING: "It is the responsibility of the government to protect every citizen, and therefore if a citizen is missing, it is government's responsibility to produce that citizen. They swore an oath, the constitution says that government has two major responsibilities, primary responsibilities: the welfare and the security of the people. Now when you talk about the security of the people, if anything happens to the people, government is held responsible and that is why government is given all the powers." PROTESTER TALKING THROUGH MEGAPHONE VARIOUS OF POLICE PATROLLING JOURNALIST FILMING VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROTESTER AND LECTURER AT NIGER DELTA UNIVERSITY, EKIYOR WELSON, SAYING: "Those are signs of a failed government, a lazy government, a government that has being defeated, a government that has abdicated its responsibilities. It is like somebody telling you: oh armed robbers have come to rob you, fine, don't go to the police, go after the armed robbers, go and meet them to give you whatever they have stolen from you. It's a shame that government is instigating this kind of argument. Now you expect people that have been abducted, you expect their parents and you expect people that are protesting to go and look, to go and meet the insurgents." PROTESTERS HOLDING MEETING
- Embargoed: 10th June 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Nigeria
- Country: Nigeria
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA9PLOW2ZBYOIZ5351F0UVTQ1Q6
- Story Text: Dozens of people gathered in Nigeria's capital on Monday (May 26) for a sit-in protest six weeks after more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped by members of the Islamist Boko Haram sect.
Boko Haram gunmen stormed a school outside the remote northeastern town of Chibok on April 14, carting some 270 girls away in trucks.
More than 50 have since escaped but at least 200 remain in captivity, as do scores of other girls kidnapped previously.
Amid ongoing protests over the kidnappings, some members of the government have urged demonstrators to direct their anger at Boko Haram and not at the Nigerian government.
But the protesters say it is the government's job to the country's citizens.
"It is the responsibility of the government to protect every citizen, and therefore if a citizen is missing, it is government's responsibility to produce that citizen. They swore an oath, the constitution says that government has two major responsibilities, primary responsibilities: the welfare and the security of the people. Now when you talk about the security of the people, if anything happens to the people, government is held responsible and that is why government is given all the powers," said Ekiyor Welson, a lecturer at Niger Delta University.
President Goodluck Jonathan and the military have come under intense criticism for their slow reaction to the mass abduction, although Nigeria has accepted help from the United States, Britain, France and China to help find the girls.
But Welson said the government's response to the crisis was inadequate.
"Those are signs of a failed government, a lazy government, a government that has being defeated, a government that has abdicated its responsibilities. It is like somebody telling you: oh armed robbers have come to rob you, fine, don't go to the police, go after the armed robbers, go and meet them to give you whatever they have stolen from you. It's a shame that government is instigating this kind of argument. Now you expect people that have been abducted, you expect their parents and you expect people that are protesting to go and look, to go and meet the insurgents," he said.
Boko Haram wants to create a breakaway Islamic state in a religiously-mixed, Muslim and Christian country of 170 million people. Its militants have attacked hundreds of schools, killing hundreds of teachers and students.
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 celebrities like Michelle Obama and film star Angelina Jolie. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
