September 19, 2016
By Chinedu Solomon

It is no more news that a government
which rode itself to power on the back of
''Integrity Mantra'' has been caught pants
down in the web of Plagiarism. In layman's
understanding through Google
encyclopedia "Plagiarism is the practice of
taking someone else's work or ideas and
passing them off as one's own. In other
words, Plagiarism ,in no uncertain terms, is
an act of fraud!

More than one paragraph of Obama's
speech was represented verbatim in
Buhari's, ''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, the
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".

While Obama said, "so let us summon a
new spirit of patriotism; of service and
responsibility where each of us resolves to
pitch in and work harder and look after not
only ourselves but each other. Let us
resist the temptation to fall back on the
same partisanship and pettiness and
immaturity that has poisoned our politics
for so long."

From the foregoing, there is no denying
the fact that the self-styled "Man of
Integrity" has committed an illegality which
is tantamount to fraud and therefore
actionable if he needs reminding. Had
Buhari equipped himself with current
trends in democracy happenings, he could
have come across such statements and
nip it in the bud during proofreading. On
the other hand, I don't want to believe that
someone who called himself a president
wouldn't take time to proofread a speech
presented to him.

Recalling from dim memory we are all not
unaware of how he was deposed in a coup
on August 27, 1985, while his deputy late
Maj Gen Tunde Idiagbon was away in
Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage by the then
Chief of Army Staff, Maj Gen Ibrahim
Babangida.

The reasons for his ouster at the period
under sad review are still there because
nothing about him has changed to this day
as far as leadership skills are concerned
and this in no small measure agitates the
mind of this writer and ultimately calls his
leadership skills in question.

If Buhari can copy someone's work
(speech), then what stops him from
copying Britain's approach to Scotts quest
for freedom and allow a referendum to be
conducted in Biafra land rather than using
brute force to suppress their voices? What
stops him from copying David Cameron's
leadership style on BREXIT? It's
disheartening and ridiculous the type of
thing some African leaders copy especially
Nigeria. Buhari's government has copied
dictatorship, nepotism, favoritism,
marginalization, theory of 97% and 5%, and
etc.

While we count ourselves lucky to be in
the know where he copied his "Change
Begin With Him" speech from, but the
source of his repressive style of
governance which is against every
democratic norm and value leaves
everyone groping in the dark marvellously.

Buhari, while in the army, killed a good
number of Biafrans and he has not
refrained from it as this has continued with
undiminished intensity following his
incursion on the Nigerian political terrain
as president. It is either Buhari lacks good
advisers or he is too rigid to adopt
democratic approaches which he swore to
uphold.

We ask British government to please
encourage, and allow Buhari to toe the line
of Scotts and BREXIT referendums. By
doing so, he would be applauded like David
Cameron; the man he congratulated for
allowing people's voices to prevail. Buhari
let others applaud you for making sure that
the right to self-determination sees light of
the day.

Edited by Lington Donovan
Reporting for IPOB writers

http://www.thebiafratelegraph.co/2016/09/nigeria-buharis-integrity-mantra-and.html?m=1