Presidency React To Alleged Plagiarism;"Move Past Incident And Focus On The Message Of Change Which The Country Need"

………To punish official for wrongful insertion in President Buhari speech

The Presidency has reacted to the alleged plagiarism in a Presidential Speech delivered during the launch of “Change Begins With Me” campaign in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

In a press release by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, he said that 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.

  

He said that 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.

Excerpt is the press release from the Presidency:

PRESIDENCY TO PUNISH OFFICIAL FOR WRONGFUL INSERTION IN PRESIDENT BUHARI SPEECH

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.

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.

Garba Shehu

SSAP (Media and Publicity).

ABUJA.