President Muhammadu Buhari has been embroiled in a shameful incident of plagiarizing president Barack Obama's 2008 victory speech as he launched his pet project "Change Begins With Me" reorientation campaign in Abuja last week.
Part of his speech encircled above was lifted from President Barack Obama's 2008 victory speech. Reacting to the report, in an unusual manner, Senior Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Shehu Garba, seems to have apologized to Nigerians for the embarrassment caused by this singular act and promised to investigate and deal with the officials responsible for the speech.
A statement released by the presidency read as follows;
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.
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