A major power player in the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, Mamman Daura, who is Buhari’s nephew is alleged to be the source of a major speech delivered by the Nigerian leader in which the words of United States president, Barack Obama, were plagiarized.
A Thisday columnist had uncovered that thw speech presented at the launch of the Change begins with me was plagiarized, saying it was a big embarrassment to Buhari and Nigeria.
The Presidency, in a reaction to this discovery, admitted that it was a serious oversight, and will be thoroughly investigated and appropriate sanction meted out to those responsible for the speech.
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu stated that already a Deputy Director in the presidency has accepted responsibility for the insertion of the contentious paragraph.
But two sources have told SaharaReporters that Daura had hijacked the task of providing speeches for the President, adding that he often discarded draft speeches that he did not commission.
Asked whether the president’s nephew personally wrote the controversial speech that lifted Obama’s words without attribution, one of them said that Daura certainly produced the speech.
“It is possible he wrote it himself, or he went and asked somebody else to go and write it and bring,” said one source, while the other stated that: “I can tell you that nobody writes speech anymore for President Buhari but Mamman Daura.”
The online medium reported that Daura was behind Buhari’s inauguration speech, which plagiarised famous quote from the late French leader, Charles de Gaulle.
The sources were reported as saying that the president’s nephew was also solely responsible for writing or commissioning Buhari’s now infamous speech entreating Nigerians to accept the idea of “Change begins with me.”
They added that the Presidency was trying to fool the public when Shehu said a deputy director had written the now widely ridiculed speech.
According to the report, Attah Esa is the only deputy director attached to the State House media office. His duties are said to be only concerned with newspaper reviews.
“Under President Buhari, all types of speeches, whether on the economy, education or terrorism, are organized solely by Mamman Daura, who thinks he knows everything. Buhari’s Personal Assistant, Sabiu Yusuf (popularly known as Tunde Idiagbon) the types the speeches,” the source was quoted as saying.
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