Will President Buhari apologize?

President Muhammadu Buhari made a terrible mistake last Thursday. He plagiarized President Barack Obama’s speech to launch “change begins with me.”

So you didn’t notice that our president lifted from Obama’s 2008 victory speech and passed it off as if the words were his own?

The argument will rage, but the moral problem of plagiarism on a day Mr. President launched a campaign to demand honesty and integrity from the people is what we should concern ourselves with.
I’m not a wailing wailer and I don’t like the downfall of any man but I also don’t like to be deceived. The very last thing you should do when you’re launching a campaign like this is to be dishonest with the people.

As Buhari talked down on Nigerians during the launch of the campaign spearheaded by no other person, other than the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, known for his trash-talk, particularly for the opposition, I started following the speech line-by-line. I was alarmed to make the discovery. It was a scandal that escaped the attention of our newspapers. It is one of two things: either people don’t pay particular attention to Buhari’s words or we are a nation of anything goes.

Only in July, Melania Trump, the wife of the Republican White House hopeful, Donald Trump, was caught in the web of plagiarism after she spoke at the Republican National Convention. She plagiarized Michelle Obama’s speech. It was a big headline on television screen and national newspapers. Indeed it was a “global” headline.

Yes, a prime part of Buhari’s speech to the nation last Thursday to launch a campaign encouraging new culture of transparency, attitudinal change and hard work among Nigerians was plagiarized from America’s President Barack Obama’s 2008 victory speech. Buhari’s speech during the launch of the “change begins with me”, a new national orientation campaign, contained largely the same sentiment and arrangement of words that President Obama used in his 2008 victory speech after he was elected the first American black president.

The president lifted a whole paragraph from Obama’s speech and passed it off as his own when he 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.”

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.
Eight years ago, Obama 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.”

It is immoral to plagiarize other people’s work, but even worse to use dishonesty to launch a campaign about honesty. When you use another person’s work without acknowledgement, you have plagiarized. You simply pretend as if it is your own. It is unethical. It makes a mess of the campaign from the start. That is what Buhari has done, nobody will believe in the ‘change begins with me’ campaign, because it was built on lies.

Now, this is what I think must have happened, an incompetent speech writer handed the speech to Buhari with no fact checking method by the president’s men that should have saved the president from this embarrassment. I know this that with the vast opportunity provided by the internet, it’s so tempting to plagiarize, but the same internet provides opportunity to discover plagiarists.

It’s particularly troubling that the president has no inspiring words of his own other than to steal from someone. And this, it is pathetic that this “change” conversation is taking new dimension from what we expected. In the midst of its failure, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is asking Nigerians to change their ways, blaming everything why the country is not working on Nigerians’ attitudes. The blame game is moving away from Goodluck Jonathan years, the only defense for failure that APC has so far used.

Interestingly, the world is watching Buhari and the story of his plagiarism may have crossed the Atlantic without him knowing. Americans don’t joke with such issue. They name and shame plagiarists. Next week, when Buhari take his turn to address the 71st regular session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Americans will scrutinize his words and check his facts.

Before that time, it is my submission that Buhari needs to apologize to Nigerians for plagiarizing on a day he launched “change begins with me.”

Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/09/16/buharis-plagiarized-speech-in-change-begins-with-me/

This is a new low for this Administration

so they no fit do ordinary turnitin subscription for that aso rock. Shame.

its a pity

This president is really dull

I thought i was the only one who saw the f**K**n plagiarism, if to say we get " wall state/street" and "main street" they for just leave dat one too join.... Change really begins with Apc

mctifey:
This president is really dull

As simple as that...and he seems to have surrounded himself with not too intelligent people

Dullardo everywhere, from the President to the person that wrote that speech and Lai Mohammed himself....

Blame presidential media aids.

They will soon come up with the part pdp played in this brain drain act. Unfortunate administration.

Anither problem for his speech wrtter. Mediocricy of the highest order.

lalasticlala should move this to fp asap

I don't think any president in the history of Nigeria has been given as much support & leeway by the media as much as PMB.

atrocities that would have earned any other president the humiliation of his/her life is overlooked or given a fleeting mention.

from the west German gaffe to the UN meeting snafu.

from the obvious double standards in anti corruption fight to the tacit silence on the atrocities of the Herdsmen.

from the obvious errors in managing the economy to the issues of plagiarism & budget padding.

from the denial of campaign promises to the flat out lie not owning a home in Abuja.

from the lies about PDP spending billions on Independence day celebrations to the pocket numbing increase in fuel prices...

PMB has committed more gaffes in 1 year than PDP in 16 years.

yet, he still comes out smelling like roses.

I hope he appreciates the chance he has & utilises well.

Aboki na aboki!!

Edit: Why did NL change a.b.o.k.i to Northerner?

woodcook:
Aboki na aboki!!

Edit: Why did NL change a.b.o.k.i to Northerner?

Seun put on the sensor

Everything about the Change begins with me was plagiarized.

From the idea to the speech .
Everything I mean everything.

The dumbo and idiotic nonsense and heavy load these Igbos carry on their head everyday is saddening and pathetic.


Jobless losers..

stalyf:
Will President Buhari apologize?



Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/09/16/buharis-plagiarized-speech-in-change-begins-with-me/

its just pathetic we are having dis set of leadership @dis point in time. First of all, the whole of the "change begins with me" material is a plagiarised work of the duo; Akin Fadeyi & Omo Bazuaye, who have submitted a copy of their work titled "not in my country" , a concept they vigorously n critically initiated in a bit to re-engineer the minds of citizens in a morally corrupted society like ours. With the latest revelation bout PMB's plagiarism, I can only say but a word to this nepotic, sardistic, absurdic, hypocritical, authoritarian, hypnotic, barbarian, n demigod demagogue PMB that, TIME is all.

its just pathetic that we are having dis set of leadership @dis point in time. First of all, the whole of the "change begins with me" material is a plagiarised work of the duo; Akin Fadeyi & Omo Bazuaye, who have submitted a copy of their work titled "not in my country" , a concept they vigorously n critically initiated in a bit to re- engineer the minds of citizens in a morally corrupted society like ours. With the latest revelation bout PMB's plagiarism, I can only say but a word to this nepotic, sardistic, absurdic, hypocritical, authoritarian, hypnotic, barbarian, n demigod demagogue PMB that, TIME is all.

There's simplicity in honestly, so the motion is set.

Buhari has no business being president, in other climes, he would have resigned over this. smh

First, they stole #ChangeBeginsWithMe project, now they plagiarised its speech.
One reason is responsible for this, there is no sincerity behind #ChangeBeginsWithMe but just a PR stunt.

If #ChangeBeginsWithMe is a genuine project, why should we build it on dishonesty?

Now the shame has gone international. How could we have thought such speech wouldn't likely be heard outside the shores of Nigeria?

what a shame!!

A man that harbors the likes of Dambazzau,Buratai,Kyari in his govt despite evidences of corruption against them;&honors Dogara with multiple private visits,while claiming to be fighting corruption cannot be expected to be honest in many other things.

This government sef! They have set Nigeria backward by four decades. Preaching honesty with hand soiled in Dishonesty. If Buhari is serious about "change Begins With Me", this is enough to sack Lai Mohammed and all those who managed this project. This issue is not too different from the issues related to budget padding.

Buhari sef. Abeg where are the people chanting "Change" before election?

doctokwus:
A man that harbors the likes of Dambazzau,Buratai,Kyari in his govt despite evidences of corruption against them;&honors Dogara with multiple private visits,while claiming to be fighting corruption cannot be expected to be honest in many other things.

I'm glad you're not being partisan on issues like this. Nobody else wanted this government to succeed as much as we did, but Hipocrisy is not my game, I'm genuinely committed to good governance in Nigeria.

socialmediaman:


I'm glad you're not being partisan on issues like this. Nobody else wanted this government to succeed as much as we did, but Hipocrisy is not my game, I'm genuinely committed to good governance in Nigeria.

I sweated,toiled day and night and went against the grain in supporting PMB;by d way since 2007.To now see how he has misgoverned this nation in so short a time,but most annoying how he has shielded corrupt elements in his govt when he was largely elected on an anticorruption mantra;is not acceptable at all.He either does right or leaves the stage.The streets are not smiling and he shud feel the heat,afterall we voted him because of anticorruption,security and economy and he has failed abysmally in 2 and average in 1.

Stealing is corruption, that means our president is officially corrupt

This is too bad...well it's obvious his speech was prepared by someone else

aresssa:
The dumbo and idiotic nonsense and heavy load these Igbos carry on their head everyday is saddening and pathetic.


Jobless losers..

If i hold you for ground ehn

Buhari would have been the 13th plague to visit the Israelites in Egypt



He is the 8th wonder of the world in dumbness



He is the Eze ndi slowpoke 1 of Nigeria

wat do u expect crook using crooks to fight crooks. is dis not corruption
seriously d dullard never disappoint. every tin about his govt is just SCAM. from stealing ''change idea'' project to stealing obama's speech. can thieves teach honesty
plagiarizing pipuls work to launch ''change begins with me'' project, a campaign dat was suppose to promote honesty is d worst form of kworuption. u can't use kworuption to fight corruption.
an empty brain has notin to offer.