BOKO HARAM IS FULLY IN CHARGE OF MOST PARTS OF NORTHEAST AS WE SPEAK

Jose Mourinho: Manchester United sack manager

Manchester United have sacked manager Jose Mourinho after identifying a catalogue of his failings at the club.

The Portuguese, 55, took over in May 2016 and led United to League Cup and Europa League titles, but they are 19 points behind league leaders Liverpool.

The club have made a change after no progress with results or style despite spending nearly £400m on 11 players.

They also say the new manager will understand the philosophy of the club, including their attacking tradition.

It is understood players and staff are not happy after a disappointing and unsettling period during which young players were not developed.

United are sixth in the Premier League, but closer to the relegation zone than to leaders Liverpool, who beat them 3-1 on Sunday.

The decision to sack Mourinho, which will cost more than £18m, has been taken in the long-term interests of United with a view that the club is bigger than any one individual.

Mourinho is understood to have wanted his own structure, but the new manager will be appointed with a head of football above him reporting to executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.

A United statement said: "A caretaker manager will be appointed until the end of the season while the club conducts a thorough recruitment process for a new, full-time manager.

"The club would like to thank Jose for his work during his time at Manchester United and to wish him success in the future."

The club hope to appoint a caretaker manager before they face Cardiff City on 22 December but it will not be assistant manager Michael Carrick or academy boss Nicky Butt.

A familiar conclusion to a rocky season

United's haul of 26 points after their first 17 Premier League games is their worst tally at this stage of a season since 1990-91.

They are 11 points off the top four, which would earn a Champions League qualification place.

The sacking of Mourinho, who replaced Louis van Gaal in May 2016 and signed a contract extension in January, comes after a fall-out with £89m record signing Paul Pogba, who was an unused substitute for the defeat at Anfield on Sunday.

Following a 1-1 draw with Wolves, Pogba said he wanted United to be able to "attack, attack, attack" at home, which led Mourinho to say the France midfielder would no longer be the club's "second captain".

After Mourinho was sacked, a post which said "caption this", along with a knowing expression on Pogba's face, appeared on his Twitter account before being deleted.

Former United captain Gary Neville replied: "You do one as well!"

United later claimed it was a "scheduled marketing post" by Pogba's sponsors Adidas.

Mourinho's third season did not begin well after missing out on key transfer targets in the summer, and two defeats in the first three league games - to Tottenham at home and Brighton away - meant his side were playing catch-up with the leading teams.

By October, there were reports Mourinho might be sacked prior to the home game against Newcastle, but after the team trailed 2-0, they turned it around to win 3-2 and seemingly buy the former Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid boss more time.

Mourinho's agent Jorge Mendes attempted to calm matters earlier this month by taking the step of issuing a statement to say his client was "very happy" and "fully committed" to the club.

Despite reaching the Champions League last 16, where United will play Paris St-Germain, they have won just one of their past six games in the Premier League.

Mourinho's dismissal continues his run of having never completed four consecutive seasons in charge of a club.

Only once has he made it into a fourth campaign, but he left Chelsea on 20 September 2007 during his first spell at Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho's record at United

Manager	Games played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Goals for	Goals against	Win %
Jose Mourinho	144	84	32	28	243	117	58.33%
Alex Ferguson	1,500	895	338	267	2,769	1,365	59.67%
David Moyes	51	27	9	15	86	54	52.94%
Louis van Gaal	103	54	25	24	158	98	52.43%

• 
  

Nigeria's Buhari rattled by Boko Haram attacks as polls loom

Insecurity is a major electoral issue for President Muhammadu Buhari as he seeks re-election in 2019 polls.

• 

Abuja, Nigeria – As Nigeria prepares for general elections in February, a series of attacks by Boko Haram has focused attention on the security situation in the country.

The armed group appears to have regained ground in the country's northeast in 2018, pushing into towns and villages it had previously lost to the Nigerian military.

With an escalation of attacks in recent months, the Nigerian government's claims of victory against Boko Haram appear premature.

The nine-year conflict with Boko Haram, that has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced two million others from their homes in Nigeria, has also spread to neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

As Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari embarks on a re-election bid, he has called for urgent measures to curtail the resurgence of Boko Haram attacks.

At an emergency meeting of leaders from the Lake Chad region on Thursday in Chad's capital, Ndjamena, Buhari urged them to not "cave in" to the attacks.

"The group's renewed strategy of increasingly mining the area as well as its recent deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance have proved to be critical factors in the resurgence of attacks in the region," Buhari said.

"These activities are aimed at weakening our collective resolve to eradicate them from the region," he said.

Changed strategy

Nigerian troops have come under repeated attacks in recent months, resulting in multiple fatalities and the theft of their military equipment.

In one such attack, a Boko Haram faction attacked a military base on 18 November in the village of Metele in Borno state, northeast Nigeria.

Military authorities said 23 soldiers were killed and 31 others wounded. Military sources, who did not want to be identified, told Al Jazeera that about 100 soldiers were killed in the attack.

"In the last 2-3 months, we have noticed daring moves by the terrorists, increased use of drones against our positions and infusion of foreign fighters in their ranks," Nigerian army spokesperson Sani Usman said in a statement from Abuja.

Fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) faction of Boko Haram have claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The attacks have focused more attention on security issues in Nigeria in advance of the presidential election in February.

"Protection is a right that citizens expect their government to fulfil. There is a need to improve security across Nigeria," Isa Sanusi, spokesperson of rights group Amnesty International Nigeria, told Al Jazeera.

Broken promises?

For Buhari, insecurity has become a major electoral issue. The former army general had campaigned hard on security and vowed to defeat Boko Haram in the last election in 2015.

Shortly after his victory, the army made gains on Boko Haram, winning back territory, rescuing abductees and dislodging the fighters from their strongholds.

But in recent months, the fighters have returned, sacking communities, killing soldiers and kidnapping young girls and aid workers.

Hauwa Liman, a 24-year-old aid worker, was executed by Boko Haram in October after a deadline imposed by the group to release some of its imprisoned members expired.

Liman, a nurse with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), had been kidnapped by the armed group in March along with two other medical workers in Rann, Borno State.

Saifura Ahmed, a midwife with ICRC who was abducted at the same time, was executed by Boko Haram in September.

The armed group is still holding a 15-year-old schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, who was abducted with 109 others in February from her school in the town of Dapchi, Yobe state.

"It's obvious from the recent rampaging attacks on hard targets (military installations) that the Islamic sect is still a threat, contrary to the claims made by the Buhari administration that they have been technically defeated," security consultant Don Okereke told Al Jazeera.

"Granted there are no quick fixes in fighting insurgency or terrorism, but many people didn't expect this Boko Haram issue to last this long," he said.

FACT CHECK: Did North Korean president ask to recolonise Nigeria, Ghana?

Kim at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this week. Photo: Valery Sharifulin/TASS via Getty ImagesTHE North Korean President Kim Jong Un boasted that he could transform Nigeria and Ghana into first world countries if he were allowed to colonise the two countries, according to a news report going viral on the social media.  The report has been shared by over 80, 000 by users, especially Nigerians on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp — with many users taking the post as the gospel truth.

The 158-word news published by Abia Pulse says Kim described Nigeria and Ghana as the backbone of Africa because “they have all the natural resources in abundance to make them the most important and sought-after countries in the world but corruption is a major problem and a curse to them”.

It quotes the North Korean leader as saying: “Give me just a year and I will transform these two countries into first class countries that will attract businesses all over the world. Nigeria should give in, Ghana should give in and let us colonize them for the second time so they will eventually learn how to run a country.

Nigeria: 'Villages totally burned' deadly Boko Haram attacks

Boko Haram fighters attacked two villages on outskirts of Maiduguri as well as a camp for internally displaced people.

A man reacts as dead bodies are brought to a hospital after a suspected Boko Haram attack on Maiduguri's inner city in Nigeria.

At least 12 civilians have been killed in multiple Boko Haram attacks targeting two villages and a camp for those displaced by fighting in northeastern Nigeria, according to residents and civilian militia.

Boko Haram fighters arrived in seven trucks late on Wednesday and attacked Bulaburin and Kofa villages, as well as a camp in Dalori village outside Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.

"The terrorists attacked and completely burned Bulaburin and Kofa villages and burned half the Dalori 2 IDP (internally displaced persons) camp," Babakura Kolo, civilian militia leader, told AFP news agency.

"They killed nine people in Bulaburin, two people in Dalori, and one in Kofa and looted food supplies before setting them on fire," Kolo said.

Musa Goni, a Kofa resident, said the fighters opened fire indiscriminately and killed one person as residents fled.

"They then moved to nearby Bulaburin where they gunned down nine people and burned the village after stealing food," Goni told AFP.

At Dalori 2, which houses 10,000 people, the fighters engaged troops and civilian militia guarding the IDP camp in a shoot-out before overrunning the makeshift facility, civilian militia camp member Solomon Adamu said.

"When the Boko Haram gunmen came they stopped on the road overlooking the camp and started firing," Adamu, who took part in the fight, told AFP.

"Soldiers and civilian JTF (militia) at the gate engaged them in gunfight but were forced to withdraw into the camp because we were outgunned," he said.

Residents were forced to flee and two were killed while several were wounded, according to Adamu.

The fighters invaded the camp after overrunning troops and the militia and "burned half the camp" by setting fires and firing rocket-propelled grenades on buildings.

"One grenade didn't explode and is still lying in the camp, waiting for bomb disposal units to evacuate it," Adamu said.

In a statement, Nigeria's military said one civilian was found dead after Boko Haram had ransacked Dalori's market, set buildings on fire and fled when soldiers approached.

The area has been attacked multiple times before by the Boko Haram faction loyal to Abubakar Shekau.

Despite government insistence that Boko Haram is near defeat, northern Nigeria is still beleaguered by heavy fighting.

Since the group launched its campaign in 2009, Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people and forced two million others to flee their homes in northeast Nigeria.

Over the years, the armed group - which wants to form a breakaway Islamic state - has kidnapped thousands of adults and children. Thank you for your time

Police nab undergraduate, four others for money ritual

The suspects

Etim Ekpimah

Police operatives at the Zone 2 Command, Onikan, Lagos, have arrested a 300-level political science student of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, and four others for engaging in money ritual.

The student, Victor Nnacheta, 20, from Aguleri in Anambra West Local Government Area of Anambra State, was said to have consulted two Abeokuta, Ogun State-based Islamic clerics, Kabiru Badmos and Nurudeen Shodaolu, who undertook to perform a money-making ritual for him with a human skull and other body parts for N250,000.

The Police Public Relations Officer for the zone, Dolapo Badmus, said on Monday that the clerics consulted two men, Olarewaju Jimoh and Mayewunmi Lukmon, who worked at a cemetery to exhume dead bodies for them.

READ ALSO

She revealed that the skull and other human parts were grinded and mixed with black soap for Nnacheta to use before going to his Bet9ja shop.

Badmus stated, “A modest achievement we have made is that of a 20-year-old man, who said he wanted to become a billionaire overnight. He consulted some herbalists/Islamic clerics, who asked him to get a human skull and other body parts.

“The herbalists/clerics hired two men, who work in a cemetery. The two men were able to exhume dead bodies. The two men confessed that they gave out skulls, which the herbalists/clerics grinded and mixed with black soap.

“In the process, the police got information about them and arrested the suspects.”

Nnacheta told our correspondent that he had asked the clerics to make him prosperous in his Bet9ja business as he had no parents.

He noted that he had paid the clerics to prepare the concoction that would make him rich before the police arrested them.

Badmus noted that apart from the five persons arrested in connection with the money ritual, the police also apprehended four armed robbery suspects, who allegedly specialised in carjacking.

According to her, the robbery gang was led by a 25-year-old man, adding that the zone was able to recover three out of the five vehicles that the gang had snatched.

Badmus said, “We found a 25-year-old man leading three other men in armed robbery operations on the highways. Based on investigation, about five vehicles had been snatched by the gang; three of the vehicles were recovered from them.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

“The other two vehicles have been taken across the border to one unknown Alhaji. We have extended our investigation to Interpol to see how the Alhaji can be arrested. The three vehicles have been handed over to their owners.”

SEE HOW NIGERIAN POLICE JUST WASTED THIS SOUL AT AIRPORT BUS-STOP FOR NO REASON

SEE WHAT A MAN MUST GO THROUGH JUST TO GET A WIFE

IF YOU ARE NOT JUBRIL THEN SPEAK UP NOW OYEDEPO TELLS BUHARI

I AM NOT JUBRIL FROM SUDAN BUHARI SPEAKS UP

I’m not Jubril from Sudan, ‘it’s real me’ – President Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari in Kakrow, Poland

‘‘It’s real me, I assure you. I will soon celebrate my 76th birthday and I will still go strong.’’
Those were the words of President Muhammadu Buhari, Sunday in Krakow, Poland, at an interactive session with the Nigerian community in the country.
Responding to a question from a Nigerian in the Diaspora who wanted to know if he was real or the much talked about ‘‘Jubril from Sudan’’ – his supposed double- President Buhari described the authors of the confusion about him as ‘‘ignorant and irreligious.’’
‘‘A lot of people hoped that I died during my ill health. Some even reached out to the Vice President to consider them to be his deputy because they assumed I was dead. That embarrassed him a lot and of course, he visited me when I was in London convalescing… It’s real me; I assure you,’’ he declared.
The Nigerian leader said he was looking forward to celebrating his 76th birthday on December 17 and jocularly added: ‘‘If I am getting harassed by anyone, it is my grandchildren, who are getting too many.’’
The President used the occasion to reiterate that his government will continue to maintain focus and deliver on the three focal points of his campaign in 2015: security, economy and the fight against corruption.
‘‘Those in the North-east will tell you that in spite of the recent setbacks, there is a difference between the time we came and before.
‘‘We are not doing badly on security, economy and agriculture. We have virtually stopped the importation of food especially rice and we are saving a lot of money.
‘‘We now have food security and that has come with fiscal security because a lot of young educated people have not regretted going back to the farms and earning a respectable living.
‘‘I am afraid, this is not receiving good publicity… but a lot of people in the rural areas are enjoying the benefits of our interventions in agriculture,’’ he said.

President Buhari, who is in Poland to attend the UN Climate Change Conference, COP24, reaffirmed that no territory of Nigeria is under the control of Boko Haram terrorists, calling on Nigerians to remain vigilant and supportive of the federal government’s efforts to ensure the security of lives and property in the country.
While acknowledging that it has not been easy financing the security sector in the country, the president said the Nigerian Armed Forces were equal to the task.
The president noted that it was regrettable that herdsmen and farmers clashes in the country have been politicised, assuring that the Nigerian government will continue to prioritise security because that is what many investors consider first before investing in the country.
On the fight against corruption, he said all recovered stolen assets will be sold and the proceeds returned to the treasury for the benefit of Nigerians.
On women representation in his government, the president told the meeting: ‘‘I have plans for all Nigerians. I am not a male chauvinist. If I’m a chauvinist, will I give the finance ministry to women?’’
In his remarks, the Ambassador of Nigeria to Poland, Eric Adagogo Bell-Gam praised Nigerians living in the country for being worthy ambassadors of the country.
Among those who met President Buhari were Larry Ugwu, an artist and curator, who has lived in Poland for 40 years and has contributed immensely to promoting Nigerian cultural heritage in the Polish society; Anthony Egwuatu, a Gynaecologist, who has lived in the country for 30 years and Olomofe Larry, a human rights activist, who has fought for justice for fellow Nigerians in the host country, among several others.
The event was put together and anchored by Abike Dabiri, Senior Special Assistant to the President, Diaspora.

The rise of hipster colonialism

The proposal that foreign powers acquire land in Africa to stem migration is nothing but 'hipster' colonialism.

by Nanjala Nyabola

A group of 300 sub-Saharan Africans sit in board a boat during a rescue operation by the Italian Finance Police vessel Di Bartolo off the coast of Sicily, May 14, 2015 [Reuters]

Last week, Germany's Africa Commissioner Gunter Nooke said that European countries should be allowed to lease land and to build and run cities in Africa as a means of stemming what he views as the unchecked expansion of migration from Africa to Europe. For Nooke, allowing the "free development" of these areas would stimulate African economies and create "growth and prosperity" and therefore, reduce the attractiveness of Europe as a destination for migration.
The proposal has elicited mixed reactions. Some have seen it as a novel economic proposition to stem a complex political challenge. Building on existing economic arrangements like Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Economic Processing Zones (EPZs), they argue that this would simply be the next stage in the evolution in the idea that economic exclaves that protect industries from the ravages of the open economy are the best way to stimulate growth. Now, instead of jeans and sneakers, we want to optimise people - or at least labour - by protecting them from the realities and ravages of their societies.
Understandably, there has also been considerable pushback. The word "colonialism" has been raised, with critics arguing that Germany, especially, with its history of violent colonialism and genocide in Namibia, Cameroon, Tanzania and Togo, has no moral authority to even table such an idea. More broadly, many African countries are still struggling to recover from the damage from European colonisation. In many African countries, land tenure is still irregular and skewed to wealthy and often white minorities, engendering generational economic exclusion. Many African economies have failed to move beyond the extractive, labour intensive economies they inherited from their European counterparts. The violence of colonisation is still very present in Africa - should we really be talking about a new, trendy colonialism that only really hopes to address Europe's paranoia about a possible invasion by black bodies?
The easiest way to get to the heart of what's wrong with this proposal is to go back to basics - what is colonialism and why is it bad? The dictionary defines colonialism as "a policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically". Ultimately, it's about exploiting a power differential in order to reorganise one society for the economic and social benefit of another: saying that one society's economic and social imperatives are more important than the other's.

Torpedoing Africa, and then complaining about 'migration'

So, Nooke's proposal is fundamentally hipster colonialism - attempting to reclaim colonialism by couching it in neoliberal trends or ideology while advocating for a return to an essentially exploitative system of social and economic organisation. Many of those speaking in favour of this proposal do so it in sterile and agnostic terms, focusing on the economic dimensions and the potential financial growth and leaving out the most important element - the people involved and affected. Underneath this is a reductive premise that human beings, and Africans specifically, are not as fully actualised human beings who deserve holistic life experiences - Africans are just labour or economic opportunities.
Yet human beings are not just labour - we are complex, social and interconnected beings whose needs cannot just be collapsed into money. "We do not want to be reminded that it is we, the indigenous people, who are poor and exploited in the land of our birth. These are concepts which the Black Consciousness approach wishes to eradicate from the black man's mind before our society is driven to chaos by irresponsible people from Coca-cola and hamburger cultural backgrounds," said Steve Biko, the founder of the Black Consciousness movement and a leading light in the anti-apartheid movement.
Biko rightfully observed that colonisation and apartheid were about more than a process of economic disruption - even while that process specifically centred on the alienation of land was traumatic enough. Colonisation was also about mental degradation of black people in South Africa. The apartheid system was about breaking down the spirits of black people so that they could be malleable and even amenable to a system of political organisation that kept them demeaned, powerless and even ashamed in their own home. Colonisation is about unmaking one society for the benefit of another.
More urgently, Nooke's hipster colonialism is only attractive if you ignore history and indeed, reality. Some facts about migration to Europe easily challenge its flawed premises. Nooke doesn't go to the heart of the economic and political climate that makes migration an attractive alternative for young African people. What are they fleeing from that would make near-certain death on the sea a more attractive alternative to home? Nooke has nothing to say for the massive land expropriation by Western corporations and Middle Eastern governments; of a "war on terror" that has criminalised young black malehood across the Sahel and down Africa's eastern seaboard; of an international political system that supports and sustains autocracy in pursuit of stability.

Africa is not poor, we are stealing its wealth

Then there is the simple issue of numbers. For one, the vast majority of people attempting to migrate to Europe are not African - they are from the Middle East. At the peak of Europe's "migrant crisis" in 2015, of the just over one million people who attempted to enter Europe, nearly 80 percent were from the greater Middle East and primarily Syria - a country devastated by a war that Germany continues to profit from through arms sales to the regime that these people are fleeing. If Europe is serious about stemming migration, it should get serious about stopping war.
More broadly, African cities are already performing many of the functions that Nooke's economic enclaves claim to work towards. Privileged people are already able to access better facilities, opportunities and representation than their rural or urban poor counterparts. This hasn't stemmed the flow of migration. It has just created a power differential between the urban elite and the poor, in turn exacerbating problems like insecurity and state violence against the poor who are criminalised through the process of protecting the privilege for the few.
European schools and universities are clearly failing to educate their students on the underlying social, cultural and structural violence that made colonisation possible. It's a fascinating coincidence that this conversation is happening in the shadow of the death of an American missionary attempting to take a vintage colonial, civilising mission to North Sentinel Island in India. The Sentinelese, a society last contacted by outsiders in the early 20th century, responded to the unsolicited invasion with a volley of arrows that almost instantly killed the young man. We are reminded that the "civilising mission" of European colonialism was ultimately an invasive, violent process. Dehumanising, neoliberal, hipster colonialism is being proposed so liberally and uncritically that it is easy to lose sight of what makes colonialism toxic.
Human mobility across the Mediterranean is indeed increasingly dangerous and that requires a robust, coordinated and concerted effort to resolve. But we can't ignore reality and history as we throw around variations of old policies rephrased in modern, trendy language because such half-baked solutions will inevitably compound whatever problems we seek to resolve. Ultimately, hipster colonialism and Nooke's proposal is yet another reminder that we need to re-centre people in our policymaking - it can't just be about money - and that the road to solutions begins quite simply with reading a history book.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
source; Aljazeera

---

Bad leaders promote cultism, criminality, says Gov. Dickson

Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has decried the use of privileged positions and access to power to stir up violence and criminality.

Governor Dickson expressed his worries during the Bayelsa Praise Night, held in the state.
The governor charged politicians to take advantage of their positions to work toward promoting and supporting development at all times.
Governor Dickson’s Special Adviser on Public Affairs, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, quoted his principal to have said that bad leadership by some persons in authority, who promote cultism and criminality, have corrupted the system and resulted to teenagers engaging in despicable acts of murdering fellow citizens in the state.
“Politics is not about promoting violence to destabilise the state. But it is rather about using privileged platforms at the state and federal levels to create a positive mark in the communities, local governments, state and the country at large.
“All those planning evil, planning to lead and serve our people but every meeting they call is about how to kill our people, buy weapons, get young men to kill more people and how to get together more cult people.
“One terrible thing that has happened is that because of what these people have done, some of the killers are about 12 and 13 years.
“That is what bad leadership has done in the state. If I were in authority at the federal level from a state that needs development, I will be working hard every day to see what difference I can make positively in my state, community and local government.
“If it is the wish of God that those people should use their privileged positions and access to work to promote criminality and instability in this state, then they will prevail. But if it is not, His judgement will consume them,” he said.
Governor Dickson, who solicited continued prayers for his family, informed the congregation about the funeral programme of his late mother, Ma Goldcoast Dickson.
He explained that it would run for three consecutive days, kicking off with the Service of Songs at the Ecumenical Centre, in Yenagoa, on December 6, an all-night Wake in his community, Toru-Orua, on December 7, while her remains would be committed to mother earth at her father’s compound in Toru-Angiama, Patani Local Government Area of Delta State on December 8.
He added that a special thanksgiving service will hold on Sunday, December 11, after the interment.