Buhari’s plagiarism of Obama in ‘Change begins with me’ speech: Presidency to sanction official

The Presidency late Friday night vowed to take disciplinary action against those responsible for President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech at the launch of national re-orientation campaign, Change Begins With Me on September 8.

Portions of the speech read by Buhari at the occasion was plagiarized from a speech by President Barack Obama in 2008.

The decision to sanction the officials responsible was contained in a statement issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.

Below is the full text of the statement.

PRESIDENCY TO SANCTION OFFICIAL OVER ‘CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME’’ SPEECH
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that prompt and appropriate disciplinary action be taken against those responsible for a wrongful insertion in his speech delivered on September 8, 2016 at the launch of the “Change Begins with Me’’ campaign.
It was observed that the similarities between a paragraph in President Obama’s 2008 Victory Speech and what President Buhari read in paragraph nine of the sixteen-paragraph address while inaugurating the Campaign on Thursday, September 8, 2016 are too close to be passed as coincidence.
There was a mistake by an overzealous staff and we regret that this has happened.
Already, a Deputy Director in the Presidency has accepted responsibility for the insertion of the contentious paragraph.
This serious oversight will be investigated thoroughly and appropriate sanction meted.
The Presidency wishes to state in the clearest possible terms that it regrets this unfortunate incident and will ensure that this does not happen again.
President Buhari urges Nigerians to look beyond this incident and focus on the message of change which the country needs in order to restore our cherished value systems.
Garba Shehu
SSA to the President
(Media & Publicity)
September 16, 2016