There are strong allegations that President Muhammadu Buhari made a terrible mistake last Thursday, by plagiarising the United State of America, USA, President, Barack Obama’s speech to launch the “Change Begins With Me” campaign.
According to a report published by Thisday Newspaper on Friday, September 16, it alleged that Buhari lifted from Obama’s 2008 victory speech and passed it off as if the words were his own.
Recall, that Buhari is expected to attend the United Nations, UN, General Assembly meeting slated for next week Tuesday.
Buhari will lead Nigeria’s delegation to the 71st UN General Assembly, scheduled to begin at the UN headquarters in New York.
The report further revealed that the world is watching Buhari and the story of his plagiarism may have crossed the Atlantic ‘’without him knowing”.
‘’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,’’ it sated.
Moreover, 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 report said.It added: ‘’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.
The report explains that it is immoral to plagiarize other people’s work, without acknowledgment.
‘’…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.
“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,’’ it stated.
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