Of stealing, corruption and plagiarism – Editorial

Azuka Onwuka, azonwuka@yahoo.com
0809-8727-263 (sms only)

When I heard last week that part of the speech of President Muhammadu Buhari for the launch of the “Change Begins with Me” campaign was plagiarised from President Barack Obama’s 2008 speech, I wished that it would be proved to be false. While that allegation was still flying around, it was revealed that the punch line of his 2015 inauguration speech (“I belong to nobody; I belong to everyone”) was also copied from Charles de Gaulle of France.

Soon after that, the Presidency confirmed that the story was true. It was a heavy blow to the image of President Buhari in particular and Nigeria in general, because plagiarism is seen as stealing and fraudulence. Plagiarism is derived from the Latin word “plagiarius,” which means “kidnapper.”

In his speech, Buhari had said: “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. 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.”

Obama’s speech had the following lines: “In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let’s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our politics for so long.

“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.”

Copying people’s works and sharing them as ours on the social media is a common practice in Nigeria. Also “blogging” is synonymous with creating a website and copying stories from other websites without authorisation and re-publishing such on your website. Therefore, many people may not understand the weight plagiarism bears.

Because the President’s name was on the two speeches, it is immaterial that the speeches were written for him by someone else. If the President’s speech is inspiring, he gets all the praise; and if there are issues arising from it, the President takes all the flak. The speechwriter is faceless, nameless and voiceless. He or she has no business with the public.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica has this to say about plagiarism: “The act of taking the writings of another person and passing them off as one’s own. The fraudulence is closely related to forgery and piracy – practices generally in violation of copyright laws.”

Once you start a postgraduate course in any serious university in Nigeria or abroad, the first orientation you will get is on plagiarism. You are warned of the consequences of plagiarism. You are bombarded with stories of those who got their PhD and became top shots in big organisations or professors in local or foreign universities but later found out to have plagiarised the work of another in their thesis. Their organisations were informed, they faced a panel, were found guilty, and the degree was withdrawn. Then, they were sacked and barred from studying in any Nigerian university.

After listening to such scary stories, you would almost feel like crediting even ordinary greeting like “Good morning” to the English to avoid being accused of plagiarising someone’s greeting!

Conversely, you are taught that quoting authorities does not diminish your research work, but that it elevates it. You discover that your professors judge your research papers based on the number of authorities you quoted. The more authorities you consulted and credited, the higher your work is rated. Therefore, you imbibe the scholarly trait of drawing ideas from a wide range of sources and giving them credit.

But non-scholars and non-professional speech writers have a different view on the issue. They assume that the more they quote and credit other authorities, the lower they are rated. They assume that such will portray them as not having their own original ideas. To avoid this, they copy other people’s words and pass them off as theirs, with the hope that nobody would find out. But someone usually finds out. In this age of technology, there are devices used to easily screen a work for plagiarism. It is surprising that the Presidency does not use such tools.

What these two unearthed cases of plagiarism (there may be more) confirm is a lack of professionalism in Buhari’s appointments. In a July 23 interview with The Punch, with the headline, “Nepotism in Buhari’s govt, worst in Nigeria’s history – Junaid Mohammed,” the former legislator had made revelations about the number of family members working for Buhari. Mohammed said inter alia:

“First, the most influential person in the Presidency today is one Mamman Daura who, as you know, is a nephew of the President. His father was Buhari’s elder brother. In addition, Mamman Daura was the one who singlehandedly brought up Abba Kyari, the current Chief of Staff to the President. In fact, Abba Kyari knows Mamman Daura more than he knows his own father.

“Next, the Personal Assistant to Buhari himself is the son of Mamman Daura. Next is what they call SCOP, State Chief of Protocol, and is also a son-in-law to Mamman Daura because he is married to Mamman Daura’s daughter. Next, the minister they unilaterally chose, against the interest of the party and against the wishes of Sokoto people, happens to be the daughter of the younger sister of Mamman Daura’s wife. Both of them are daughters of Sultan Dasuki, who was sacked by General Abacha. We have the Aide-de-Camp to Buhari himself, Col. Abubakar. He is married to the granddaughter of one of Buhari’s elder sisters. Next, we have the woman who represents Kaduna in the Federal Executive Council – she is a cousin to the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai. It is well-known that el-Rufai is one of the closest governors to Muhammadu Buhari.

“Next, we have the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory. The Minister of the FCT is the man called Musa Bello, who used to be the Managing Director of the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation, which used to be the biggest holding company that belonged to all the northern states. His only qualification to be the FCT minister is the fact that his father has been Buhari’s friend over the years. Now, there is a young man called Sabiu Yusuf, nicknamed Tunde – probably because of the late Gen. Tunde Idiagbon. He is another PA to President Buhari. He is also a grandson of another sister of Buhari.

“This is enough to prove to you that this is shamelessly the worst form of nepotism in the history of government in Nigeria. In fact, in the history of Africa, let me make bold to assert that I have never seen any level of nepotism that has equalled or surpassed this in my entire life – I am now in my 67th year.”

He mentioned other relatives that were appointed by the Presidency. So, while Buhari is being accused of making national appointments to favour the North, some Northerners are accusing him of concentrating on relatives in his appointments. The President himself had said in the past that he appointed those he knew and those who had been loyal to him.

Buhari needs to be reminded that the man who organised the election that brought him to power, Prof. Attahiru Jega, was not known to President Goodluck Jonathan who appointed him. Jega did his job dispassionately and patriotically and made Nigeria proud.

To get Nigeria out of recession and make a mark, Buhari needs to rethink the trend of his appointments and seek for experts in all fields.

source: punch

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