Plagiarism: Who helped Buhari embarrass Nigeria?

Some reports claim that Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew, allegedly wrote the plagiarised ‘Change Begins with Me’ speech.

The speech which was read out by President Buhari during the launch of ‘Change Begins with Me’, a re-orientation programme of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government, targeted at preaching attitudinal change among Nigerians, was not only an embarrassment to the President and the party with change mantra, but also the entire nation.

In the speech, the writer had lifted verbatim, United States President Barack Obama’s victory speech on the 4th of November, 2008.

Obama wrote, “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.”

Buhari’s plagiarised version read: “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.”

However, two sources at the Presidency, according to an online report, claim that Daura was the culprit. The two sources alleged that Daura has unilaterally taken over the job of writing speeches for President Buhari and that most often, speeches drafted by another which is not sanctioned by him are thrown away.

What though is not clear is if, indeed, it was Daura who helped President Buhari plagiarise Obama, whether he wrote it himself or gave another person to write on his behalf.

What, perhaps, is certain is that the ‘veteran’ who may have done the script, in today’s fast digital age, did not subject the proposed speech to any form of integrity tests before it was dumped on the President. Also in doubt, arising from this executive blunder, is the sort of team query that goes into the President’s speeches if only to iron out grey areas.

Read also: Buhari’ speech writers in trouble for copying Obama’s speech

Nigerians seek answers to, in the midst of this national embarrassment, how no one was able to detect the sin of plagiarism if everyone was carried along in the writing of the president’s speech.

In any case, it must be noted that plagiarism which is appropriating another person’s ideas, words or thoughts, or taking credit for another person’s artistic or literary work is litigated in courts as copyright infringement.

Since the Presidency has accepted embarrassing the nation, and offered apologies, for plagiarising Obama’s speech and, even as President Buhari has vowed to sanction whoever is the culprit, it is important to also remind him that plagiarism is stealing, and amounts to an act of corruption.

The President must appreciate that, having stoked interest, Nigerians are watching and are keen to know who embarrassed him and the entire nation. It is not enough to offer apologies. In this era of ‘change’, someone must be seen to have been punished for it, not a ‘Director’, but a name Nigerians can identify with to show that the promise of change is actually being effected in practice.

Nigerians will love to see the President match his words of ‘not belonging to anybody and belonging to all’ by adequately exposing the culprit and appropriately sanctioning whoever he/she is.

By Ebere Ndukwu …

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

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