The presidency has admitted that the speech delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari at the launch of “change begins with me” campaign contains similarities between a paragraph in President Obama’s 2008 Victory Speech and what the President read in paragraph nine of the sixteen-paragraph.
According to a statement signed by Senior special assistant on media and publicity Garba Shehu, “The Presidency wishes to respond to a story on alleged plagiarism in a Presidential Speech that has been trending for most of today”.
“The Presidency observed that the similarities between a paragraph in President Obama’s 2008 Victory Speech and what the President read in paragraph nine of the sixteen-paragraph while inaugurating the “Change begins with me” are too close to be passed as coincidence. There was a mistake by an overzealous administration staff and we regret that this has happened”.
“A Deputy Director in the Presidency has accepted responsibility for the insertion of the contentious paragraphs even as a query to him was being typed”.
“This serious oversight will be investigated thoroughly and appropriate punishment meted”.
“The Presidency, once again regrets this unfortunate incident. Measures have been put in place to ensure that this does not happen again”.
“President Muhammadu Buhari admonished Nigerians to move past the incident and focus on the message of change which the country needs in order to restore our cherished value systems.”