Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Presidency to sanction official responsible for Buhari’s plagiarised speech

By Online Editor
17 September 2016   |   11:40 am
The presidency has confirmed that a part of the speech delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari on September 8, 2016 at the launch of the "Change Begins with Me" campaign.
President Muhammadu Buhari and US President Barack Obama at a meeting at the White House

President Muhammadu Buhari and US President Barack Obama at a meeting at the White House

The presidency has confirmed that a part of the speech delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari on September 8, 2016, at the launch of the “Change Begins with Me” campaign was plagiarised.

A deputy director in the Presidency, who has claimed responsibility for the plagiarism, would be sanctioned, said a presidential spokesman Garba Shehu in a statement.

There were huge similarities between a paragraph in President Obama’s 2008 Victory Speech and what President Buhari read in paragraph nine of the sixteen-paragraph address while inaugurating the campaign in Abuja.

The president’s speech read in part “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.”

Obama had in different parts of his 2008 victory speech said: “Let’s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship, 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.”
Shehu said the incident was regrettable and unfortunate while promising  that it will not happen again.

He Nigerians to look beyond the incident and focus on the message of change which the country needs in order to restore our cherished value systems.

4 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    There was surely an odious and embarassing failure of protocols and routine rules of engagement by the speech writers and dominant ministry or perm sec. This becomes even more apparent and consternating as it happened at the launch of an ethical and attitudinal orientation crusade of which the success fundamentaly depends on the dimensions of moral strength and integrity it could muster right from start

  • Author’s gravatar

    this is just preposterous, so all those big heads arounf the President are just empty head, empty this ,empty that ,Oh so these people cannot be original without copying someone , Even our ministers are empy heads and see where they have taken us into recession, May this time it also Jonathan that wrote that for pfesident, what an insults, recievimg money,allowances just for nothing,

  • Author’s gravatar

    A season of plagiarised speech. More revelations on the way