The political atmosphere is getting heated up as the 2011 elections draw close; the intrigue, drama and mudsling synonymous with politicking are beginning to surface.

As thousands of party faithful, praise singers and hangers-on flooded the Eagle Square venue formal declaration of Goodluck Jonathan’s intention to run in the January presidential election, little did they know that the speech they all cheered and applauded was to become an object of ridicule and controversy.

Barely 72 hours after Mr. Jonathan delivered his speech to his vociferous supporters at the Eagle Square, reports have it that a paragraph of that speech that nearly drove his supporters into a frenzy was actually lifted from former Vice-presidents Atiku Abubakar’s presidential declaratory speech written in 2006.

Mr. Jonathan had told his supporters last Saturday that:

“Our country is at the threshold of a new era; an era that beckons for a new kind of leadership; a leadership that is uncontaminated by the prejudices of the past; a leadership that is committed to change; a leadership that reinvents government, to solve the everyday problems that confront the average Nigerian.”

Some believe that the similarity of the above statement to paragraph nine of Mr. Atiku’s 2006 speech more than just coincidental. Mr. Atiku had said in 2006 that:

“Today, as we stand on the threshold of a new era Nigeria requires a new kind of leadership, a leadership committed to this change process. We need a leadership that is not hampered or constrained by the regressive politics of the past or the unproductive ideologies of the present. Nigeria deserves a proven, committed and experienced leader who knows how to reinvent government to help solve the real problems our people today.”

Shehu Garba, spokesperson for the Atiku Campaign Organisation makes light of the claim. According to him the Atiku Campaign Organisation has been too “preoccupied with the coming party primaries so we have not paid attention to that speech”. He however said if “the charge is true, then it is unfortunate”.

“Change you can Xerox”

The accusation of plagiarism between political opponents is obviously not a new thing. In 2008, during the Democratic Party presidential primary, United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton, (then a democrat presidential aspirant) had accused Barak Obama of plagiarism. According to Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama had lifted from Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts.

Mr. Obama had dismissed the accusation as diversionary.

“The notion I had plagiarized from someone who is one of my national co-chairs who gave me the line and suggested I use it I think is silly. This is where we get into silly season in politics and people start getting discouraged about it.”

Mrs. Clinton, however, refused to handle the issue with same levity as Mr. Obama.

“If your candidacy is going to be about words, they should be your own words,” said Clinton. “Lifting whole passages is not change you can believe in, it’s change you can Xerox.”

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/5621219-147/gj_accused_of_plagiarism__.csp

And so wetin? Na the person wey write dis article I blame. Im no do proper justice to the issue, make I change gear to proper english so dat i no go konfuse some pipul. There is a WORLD of difference between plagiarism and improper sourcing of text. Jonathan's speech is obviously sourced from Atiku's 2006 speech without a shadow of doubt (if at all Atiku published such a speech); but THAT is not necessarily plagiarism. Plagiarism is when you lift word for word, or when you do not cite (i.e. reference) the source. As far as I know, nobody has asked Jonathan's speech writer if he actually used (i.e. was inspired by) Atiku's speech, and if he confesses to the affirmitive, why he did not put (Atiku, 2006) as per Havard Referencing Style. So that the hungry Nigerian on the street, who has no home, no job, is insecure and has not seen 24hrs of electricty for almost 20 years, will know that our President uses proper citation in his speech. NONSENSE. As if the ordinary Nigerian cares or even knows what plagiarism is all about. Make una shut up o jare and allow Jonathan to run in peace. Find some credible criticism (policy based) and stop wasting our time on trivialities. I don talk mai own.