Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has been accused of plagiarizing a speech from U.S. President Barack Obama at an event aimed at ending "dishonesty, indolence, unbridled corruption and widespread impunity" in Nigeria. Buhari, who was elected on an anti-corruption campaign in 2015, was accused of stealing Obama's words by Nigerian newspapers after he used similar words from the U.S. president when launching his new "Change Begins With Me" campaign.

"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," Buhari said when announcing his new so-called "reorientation" campaign in the capital city of Abuja on Sept. 8. "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." A transcript of Obama's speech can be found here.

Adeola Akinremi, a columnist with Lagos-based THISDAY Newspaper, said the speech mirrored remarks from Obama's victory speech when he was first elected in 2008. "Let’s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long," Obama said at the time. "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."


Akinremi called Buhari "unethical," especially given the focus of his presidential campaign. "It is immoral to plagiarize other people’s work, but even worse to use dishonesty to launch a campaign about honesty," he said. "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."

Presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu told local reporters that officials were investigating the accusation.

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

Lalasticlala , mynd44 , seun , om4j

Could it be true

This man is going down daily..

Nothing new about this, this is not the first time.
I belong to no one, I belong to everyone
Was it not from Erics burdons phrase?

Buhari has no word, no policy, no direction of his own.

not surprised

Hmm

What do you expect from someone that has a NEPA bill as certificate

Hahahahhahaahhhahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahhahaha.....chai!!!!!

After stealing votes, to stealing our economy..oga bubu has gone international to steal.

Who are the people in charge of his Speech writing team.

This is totally unacceptable coming from the Presidency

Mynd44:
https://www.nairaland.com/3353267/buhari-accused-plagiarising-obamas-speech

Alright, Didn't observe a thread was created already

Mynd44:
https://www.nairaland.com/3353267/buhari-accused-plagiarising-obamas-speech

@ Mynd44, you are my last hope, please teach me how to create a new topic.