plagiarism

President Buhari....A slump in the country’s fiscal system has adversely affected the cost and standard of living for the common man. Furthermore, the regimes has been reluctant in addressing core sociopolitical issues facing the country – from security, heath, education to affordability of consumer goods. — Buhari in his speech for the “Change Begins With Me” campaign, said, “We must resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our country for so long.” The line was taken verbatim from Obama’s speech, which he gave eight years ago after his victory over Arizona Sen. John McCain. Furthermore, the regimes has been reluctant in addressing core sociopolitical issues facing the country – from security, heath, education to affordability of consumer goods.

(CNN) – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has removed a speechwriter who caused him national embarrassment after he plagiarized US President Barack Obama.

Buhari delivered the lines at the launch of a landmark campaign on September 8, unaware that part of his speech was lifted.

Buhari in his speech for the “Change Begins With Me” campaign, said, “We must resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our country for so long.”

The line was taken verbatim from Obama’s speech, which he gave eight years ago after his victory over Arizona Sen. John McCain.

The incident was particularly embarrassing for the president because “Change Begins With Me” is a flagship policy meant to demand honesty and integrity from Nigerians.

Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu confirmed to CNN that the unnamed civil servant had been relieved of his duties at the state house.

He said: “He came from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service on posting and he was asked to return (to that office). They will handle his case in accordance with their regulations.”

At the time, Shehu blamed the error on “overzealous administration staff.” “We regret that this has happened. This serious oversight will be investigated thoroughly and appropriate punishment meted.”

The presidency has put in place digital software used by editors to combat plagiarism, the spokesman said.

It is not the first time Buhari has been called out for plagiarism. In his inauguration speech in May 2015, he received plaudits for his quote: “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.”

This line was later attributed to French President Charles de Gaulle, who was quoted in a book saying, “I am a man who belongs to no one and who belongs to everyone,” while addressing a press conference on May 19, 1958.

Buhari’s “Change Begins With Me” campaign, which includes a push against widespread corruption, has proved somewhat ill-fated, with some Nigerians criticizing it for being tone-deaf and failing to address their needs during a biting recession. Many took to Twitter to vent against the campaign.

Speaking at its launch, Buhari said: “The campaign principle is simple, each of us must live the change we want to see in our society. Before you ask, ‘where is the change they promised us,’ you must first ask, ‘how far have I changed my ways.”

College students, take note: if you plagiarize, people will notice.

Melania Trump spoke during the Republican National Convention on Monday night, leaving some viewers with a sense of déjà vu.

Following a tweet from journalist Jarrett Hill, many called out Trump on blatantly plagiarizing Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech from the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Looking at the speeches side by side, they are shockingly similar.

The Washingtonian ran the transcripts of the suspicious paragraphs from Trump’s speech through a comparison plagiarism checker, Small SEO Tools. The results, perhaps predictably, showed that nearly half of the speech was taken directly from Obama’s speech.

“The first half of the excerpt came in at 46 percent non-unique, while the next few sentences registered at 44 percent non-unique,” wrote The Washingtonian.

Mashable also ran the transcripts through the checker, and came up with similar results. The first excerpt, however, came up as 47 percent non-unique.

According to The Washingtonian, citing the plagiarism checker TurnItIn.com, “the likelihood that a 16-word match is ‘just a coincidence’ is less than 1 in a trillion. Melania Trump’s longest match? 23 words.”

This particular type of plagiarism is known as “clone plagiarism,” in which the copier lifts words and phrases verbatim from another source. College professors agree that this kind of copying is not acceptable.

Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies and co-chairwoman of the Presidential Oral History Program at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, told USA Today, “if I were reading a student paper and two paragraphs were lifted almost verbatim, I would turn the student into the dean and then he or she would decide the student’s fate in terms of the college.”

Still, Team Trump is denying all accusations about the speech, citing everything from My Little Pony to directly blaming Hillary Clinton for the backlash.

Still, let’s hope Team Trump doesn’t turn in any college papers.

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