ABUJA, Nigeria — Scores of protesters chanting “Bring back our girls!” marched Thursday to Nigeria’s presidential villa to demand more action to find and free nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic militants, but President Goodluck Jonathan did not meet with them, leaving an aide to deliver a lecture that further angered the demonstrators.
“Another small window for Jonathan and he refuses to use it!” one protester yelled. “What a stupid move!”
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The protesters complained of the insensitivity of Jonathan, who did not even meet parents of some of the abducted children when they came to Nigeria’s capital earlier this month.
Many schools across the country were closed Thursday to protest the abductions, the government’s failure to rescue the girls and the killings of scores of teachers by Islamic extremists in recent years.
Protesting teachers in Abuja also demanded compensation for the families of slain colleagues.
Teacher Precillia Udewaze implored the insurgents to free the girls, saying in a video on the Premium Times newspaper website: “We are begging them, wherever they have kept these girls, please Boko Haram. Boko Haram, please.”
In Maiduguri, the northeastern city that is the birthplace of Boko Haram, protesting teachers said they could no longer “tolerate government insensitivity to the plight of the girls and the education sector.”
In Abuja, protesters singing, “All we are saying is bring back our girls,” to the tune of John Lennon’s iconic “Give Peace a Chance,” marched to the presidential villa, where they were told Jonathan was not there.
Junior minister Olajumoke Akinjide read a message from the president urging Nigerians to unite and stop criticizing the government.
It was “wrong and most unfair,” she said, to suggest the government reacted slowly, adding that the president meets daily with security chiefs on the crisis.
Murmurs of disagreement rose as she declared: “The people of Afghanistan do not blame the government, they blame the terrorists.”
Nigerians, she said, should instead be “encouraged to supply useful information to the security services.”
That inflamed the crowd, which said residents of Chibok did exactly that, but the military failed to respond to their warnings.
Residents reported a similar lack of action that could have helped avert at least one of two deadly bomb blasts Tuesday at a bustling marketplace in the central city of Jos.
Market vendors said their suspicions were aroused by a van parked for hours under a pedestrian bridge, according to Mark Lipdo of the charity Stefanos Foundation. He said they warned soldiers at a nearby checkpoint, but nothing was done. The van contained the first bomb.
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