Plagiarism: Presidency to punish official who inserted Obama's quote in President Buhari's speech
The Presidency has responded to reports that President
Buhari plagiarized president Barack Obama's speech at the launch of "Change Begins
With Me" reorientation campaign in Abuja last week
A part of President Buhari's speech (right) contained largely the same
arrangement of words and emotional outburst that President Obama used in
his 2008 victory speech (left) after he was elected the first American black
president. Reacting to the report, Senior Special Adviser to President
Buhari on Media and Publicity, Shehu Garba, says the official
responsible for the speech will be sanctioned
Below is the statement issued by Shehu Garba Shehu, SSAP Media and Publicity to the President:
The Presidency wishes to respond to a story on alleged plagiarism in a
Presidential Speech that has been trending for most of today.
The
Presidency observed that the similarities between a paragraph in
President Obama’s 2008 Victory Speech and what the President read in
paragraph nine of the sixteen-paragraph while inaugurating the “Change
begins with me” are too close to be passed as coincidence. There was a
mistake by an overzealous administration staff and we regret that this
has happened.
A Deputy Director in the Presidency has accepted responsibility for the
insertion of the contentious paragraphs even when a query to him was
being typed.
This serious oversight will be investigated thoroughly and appropriate punishment meted.
The Presidency, once again regrets this unfortunate incident. Measures
have been put in place to ensure that this does not happen again.
President Muhammadu Buhari admonished Nigerians to move past incident
and focus on the message of change which the country needs in order to
restore our cherished value systems.
Source: Quotes culled from Thisday
