- 132shares
- 124Facebook
- 0Twitter
- 0Pinterest
- 8LinkedIn
- 0Email
- 0Reddit
So I heard that in a country of lettered laureates, the President’s speech was plagiarised. Well, sad. Very sad.
Writing, speechwriting specifically, is not easy.
But plagiarising is lazy, very lazy. Sleazy too.
But as difficult as writing is, even for the gifted, the crime of plagiarism is never an option. Not on Facebook, not on Twitter, not in publishing, not on theses, and definitely not in a President’s speech.
I do not know Aso Rock’s speechwriters, but I know the job firsthand, and I admit how “tough” it can be to work as a speechwriter for/with TYPICAL Nigerian politicians. Still, a presidential (or gubernatorial) speechwriter should know also that this relative “toughness” isn’t a cloak for the vice of plagiarism. And that, at that level, it amounts to national and international shame.
Funny enough though, this is not cutting some slack for the speechwriter(s) that did the Obama swoop; nor for the Presidency that employed him, her, or them. I once mentioned that there seems to be an innate inappetence for class in the Presidency considering the many mediocre marks that speckle some of the appointments.
On my Facebook friends list lásán, I can easily count 20 young minds in a sleepy hollow. Fluid young people who readily possess the gift, grace, wit, and emotional intelligence to understand and assess the mood and thoughts of a moment; put it together in the charm of words, and deliver an original masterpiece in the form of a President’s speech. But, as I said, the scouts in this Presidency didn’t “CHANGE”, they probably did the usual: nepotism against competence to make appointments. Alas, plagiarism.
We have age-long reserves of crude oil, fuel gets scarce.
We have amazonian stretch of arable land, food gets expensive.
In Nigeria, we have an inexhaustible bazaar of resources, economy recedes.
We have lettered laureates, presidential speech gets plagiarised.
Babánlá bane.
Damn! These people really did plagiarise a speech for the President of the Nation! Damn! It just sunk in deeper. MEDIOCRE !!! Haha.
Well, the #ChangeBeginsWithMe thing was a kwashiorkor idea in the first place sha, so maybe it isn’t farfetched that the plagiarism-rich President’s speech at its launch came as a mere sign and symptom that has “persisted after 2 days”….people, call Doctor oh!
His dead? Ha!
Get more stuff like this
in your inbox
Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.
Thank you for subscribing.
Something went wrong.
This is embarrassing. Those responsible must be punished.
@ AbdulFattah Jimoh, my brother, this is Nigeria where anything goes. You don’t punish anybody for anything. A country of certificated illiterates. That is why nothing is working. God bless you brother
Nigeria is full of evil, nothing good works out here, All hail Biafra my country.
U say d shou consume nigeria now u copy obama speech hw to beliv u now. Obama is nigeria.?
Nawao for this present government..so so strange nagative things are happening…!First it was national budget PADDING,Now is SPEECH PLAGIARISING.CHEI!When will Nigeria both FG,States and individuals stop importing things we have in excess/abundance and exporting what we do not have??How many Professors of English language and Literature do we have in this country?Anyway,Mr.Presidential speech writer,now that you’ve learnt in a HARD WAY(assuming you survive this raised sword of dormacle),learn to consult,develop a teachable spirit ok!
He didn’t write the speech, he only read it out to Nigerians. Even Obama and Michelle don’t write their’s
That is not the point my dear. When or if the shame comes it will not go to the writter but to the reader and in this case it our president. 314 words! Haba and with no respect to the original reader?
Na u dey write am for them?
Rachel, he couldn’t have read the speech without his name and signature on it. ….He approved it !
Oluwafemi do think if it was Obama the will write that little speech for him ?
seriously,pple have pounced on dz matter like it is smthn else,d President doesn’t write dz things,he only reads dem out loud if he likes what he sees.. how is d man supposed to know dt some sentences were part of Obama’s 2008 speech? If not dt sm few pple pointed it out,how many pple know
A president who can’t write
U can test run it in Internet to know
How on earth would a Whole President of a country not write his own speech??…
It’s not his job to know the source, that’s the work of speech writers who unfortunately have faulty foundations, check out our project & term paper systems at tertiary levels. ( my apologies).
The problem is that Nigeria appointment is based on ..minus that we have philosophers political scientist Barristers ,grammarians that are good enough
Victor Akpa, irrespective of bias expressed in the various responses, you are refreshingly different and down to earth. One of our bane as a nation is pretext. How many Nigerian graduates wrote ORIGINAL thesis, projects or term papers without being guilty of what we are accusing the President of?
@okwara Victor please tell us which president prepared speech by himself
So that means that one day Mr presido will sign his death warrant without reading?
Dis guy Na mumu
Help me ask…
At lest he should have used it as a reference by quoting Obama
PDP is responsible for this act. Lol
Abi oooooo
Copy copy president
Consume made in Nigeria goods, but politicians prefer importing their goods and expect average Nigerians to consume made in Nigeria, now they even import speech. Nawa Oo.
Very shameful!
For anybody to improve he or she must admit that he or she has a limit. Now presidency in their normal blame game is blaming unnamed Director for their ” mistake “. Probably presidency may hire 30 SANs this time to correct their ” insertion “.
PDP is the cause of all this, PDP shd be blame. That is exactly what happened when are surround yourself with people that don’t have sense.
D president no preview d speech before coming on air ni???? D president should also be questioned…. God bless Nigeria
Copy budget, copy speech I like this: Change begins with me.
Copy copy buhari
If the acclaimed stolen words fit in to the present situation we find ourselves. What nonsense, ride on baba, I stand with you, be focused and move us out of this mess
@olufemi i wounder if u r educated at all, do u know d acedemic implication of plagiarising someone else intellectual property without acknowledging d source. okkk I suppose u r just one of d certificated illiterate we hv in Nigeria.
Emmanuel Ezoke I will not join issues with,
Shuuu! What embarrassment is this? When i am available with my Pen & Papers?? Chiee!!!
Put all the blame on past administration.
I think oboma is better than other presidents to me I don’t see anything wrong with plagiarism either
Why are people making mockery comments about this, is there anything wrong in suggesting that Jonathan left that speech in office?
The ragea is not over yet… Wait till you hear him on October 1st presidential broadcast/speech
Incredibly mind boggling!
I wonder what the presidential media aides are doing. They should let Nigerians know that it was the fault of the pdp. Or may be as Ekup-nse suggested, Jonathan must have left that speech in office.
Let’s blame Jonathan for dis oooo, why? because he didn’t copy d speech and keep for buhari before he arrived USA, hahaha APC and their blames
Change begins with me.sai baba
This man need a change of heart to change nigeria for beta………… But funy enough he has no power to change nigeria.
Ur right dear
But life itself is plagiarism.
What do u expect in a country where many certificate owners are struggling to defend the certificates ?
Mr president inherited nothing from d past administration o including speech. copy copy president. lolz
I thought his excellency was suppose to luk into de speech before delivering it
From this it can be seen that these so-called leaders don’t have an idea on how to build this nation