– President Muhammadu Buhari has been accused of plagiarism following similarities between his speech and Obama’s own
– The presidency blamed it on a media aide and will be punished
– He urged Nigerians to move past the issue and focus on the change agenda
President Muhammadu Buhari is unhappy following the claim that his speech at the inauguration of Change Begin With Me programme was plagiarised from President Barrack Obama’s speech.
During the speech, the president had said: “We must resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our country for so long. Let us summon a new spirit of responsibility, spirit of service, of patriotism and sacrifice, Let us all resolve to pitch in and work hard and look after, not only ourselves but one another, What the current problem has taught us is that we cannot have a thriving army of rent seekers and vested interests, while the majority suffers.”
READ ALSO: Buhari to reduce presidential air fleet – Garba Shehu
President Obama used the precise words at a rally in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, United States, after winning the race for the White House in November 2008.
He had said “In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let’s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.
“So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.
“Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.”
In a statement issued by Garba Shehu who is the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, he said a deputy director in the presidency had claimed responsibility and would be duly punished for it.
Read the statement below:
“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.
READ ALSO: Buhari accused of plagiarism over “Change begins with me”
“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.”
The post Plagiarism of Obama’s speech: President Buhari spits fire, to punish media official appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read Naij.com 24/7.
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