My last week’s write-up with the above title elicited many thoughtful responses from my readers. Unfortunately, I can only publish a fe...
My last week’s write-up with the above title elicited many thoughtful responses from my readers. Unfortunately, I can only publish a few of them. I hope you find them as interesting as I did.
Truth
be told, plagiarism is pervasive in our educational system. Many students and
even teachers don't even know that it's wrong. From lecture notes to journal
articles to books, we copy other people's work verbatim without attribution and
inserting quotation marks. Recently somebody told me plagiarism means
"copying more than five sentences from another person’s work".
Anything less is no plagiarism! Lecturers not only condone the act, they
encourage it by turning a blind eye to obvious cases of plagiarism.
The
surest way of showing you understand a material is not to regurgitate it in an
exam and score an A, but to present it in your own words. No new knowledge can
be meaningfully produced if we continue to plagiarize. Merit will be hampered
and mediocrity will be rewarded with promotions and undeserved recognition. The
campaign against plagiarism should start from the lower levels of the
educational system so that students can be adequately prepared to face the
challenges of academic writing before they enter tertiary institutions. Those
researchers at CBN had probably plagiarized in their undergraduate theses, and
thought they could continue in the knowledge that they would not be found out.
If
Sanusi's case brings the issue to limelight, it will be worth the litigation,
whatever the motives of Dike might be. Thanks for a brilliant piece. Great
lessons abound in the mistakes of great people like Sainna Sanusi!
Abdulrahaman
Muhammad, University of Maiduguri
Quite a courageous piece there. Kudos to Trust for
publishing it. I did a piece with similar positions but the media machinery of
the CBN made sure it didn’t see the light of day. Sanusi has been a writer and
polemicist, a fact many do not know, and he comes loaded with the writer’s
temperament. That fellow-feeling may be responsible for why some of us have
stuck with him in his previous storms. But his latest issue with plagiarism is
one that is bound to separate him from his die-hard fans.
The metaphor which aptly captures this is that of
the fish which swam the Seven Seas only to be overwhelmed by the old woman’s
pot of soup. The pot of plagiarism may be quite small but it has been the
Waterloo of many who tried to swim past it.
The press statement from CBN’s spokesman, Ugochukwu
Okoroafor, on the
matter beggars logic and does Sanusi’s deep intellect no credit. I have read a lot of dodgy press statements in defence of public officers’ actions but none in recent memory has been this disingenuous. It is akin to being accused of stealing a pen and the accused coming out to swear on top of his voice in the marketplace: “I didn’t do it, wallahi. It’s my hand that did!” On-lookers will begin to wonder whether the man’s “head is correct.”
matter beggars logic and does Sanusi’s deep intellect no credit. I have read a lot of dodgy press statements in defence of public officers’ actions but none in recent memory has been this disingenuous. It is akin to being accused of stealing a pen and the accused coming out to swear on top of his voice in the marketplace: “I didn’t do it, wallahi. It’s my hand that did!” On-lookers will begin to wonder whether the man’s “head is correct.”
Mike
Ekunno, former Senior Speechwriter to the last Minister of Information and
Communications and member of Quintilian - Speechwriters Group.
I was sorely disappointed
when I heard of the incident. Plagiarism is a very serious crime and giving
Sanusi's track record of academic prowess it has spoken unwell of him. A prolific
writer like Sanusi who wrote extensively before should know better the gravity
of plagiarism.
Muktar G.Maigamo
Muktar G.Maigamo
This particular article on Sanusi
Lamido is objective and constructive, unlike the others you wrote pertaining
him. Very interesting read.
Mubarak Abdullahi
I
have had the privilege of reading Sanusi Lamido Sanusi's (SLS) writings. I had
also heard him deliver lectures. I heard him engage in debates and arguments. I
also agree mostly with your arguments and conclusions. But, unlike you, I would
want SLS to initiate an out-of-court settlement on this matter by apologising
to Prof. Dike, V.E. and withdrawing the continued publication of the offensive
material. This action would show him as sincere and having the integrity to
accept responsibility, a quality which is sorely lacking among our boko-trained
elites and leaders.
Anonymous commenter on my blog
"Corruption
is what is killing the country" is a phrase to which many intellectuals
and market women alike can lay claims of originality. It is not clever, not
funny and not wise. The supposed lines lifted are of such nature that many
Africans, writing on Nigeria, would come to the same arrangement of words.
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful
appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and
publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or
expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work.
This does not seem to be one of them. The dignified professor should be
flattered, and not seek the Nigerian road to the fast buck.
Anonymous commenter on my blog
Once again, I'm here laughing so hard, I almost fell
off my chair. You managed to inflict a severe dent to those passages of
mediocrity that may possibly be the cause of legal woes for such an
intellectual powerhouse, Mallam Sanusi.
Like you, I concur completely, there's no excuse for such an oversight from the CEO. He must've passed the buck to an inept assistant at his own peril. And with the benefit of hindsight, in politicking, history is mystery.
Fair enough, the purported author, Mr V E Dike has a legitimate claim. But what a ruckus and overzealous schmaltziness over something which a better writer could have used to his advantage in a positive way! I smell a bit of predatory opportunism, with a view to gaining publicity and hitting pay dirt.
However, this speaks to my thorough aversion for the malaise of corporatese and the perils of bureaucracy. If Sanusi had been a manager in a small firm, he may have sorted out this little snag on a one-to-one basis with the said author. But the CBN had to wade in, trying to muschle their way out with PR stunts on the advice of a vulpine legal team ~ madness ensues.
But I'm applauding your exceptional brilliance and class once more.
Like you, I concur completely, there's no excuse for such an oversight from the CEO. He must've passed the buck to an inept assistant at his own peril. And with the benefit of hindsight, in politicking, history is mystery.
Fair enough, the purported author, Mr V E Dike has a legitimate claim. But what a ruckus and overzealous schmaltziness over something which a better writer could have used to his advantage in a positive way! I smell a bit of predatory opportunism, with a view to gaining publicity and hitting pay dirt.
However, this speaks to my thorough aversion for the malaise of corporatese and the perils of bureaucracy. If Sanusi had been a manager in a small firm, he may have sorted out this little snag on a one-to-one basis with the said author. But the CBN had to wade in, trying to muschle their way out with PR stunts on the advice of a vulpine legal team ~ madness ensues.
But I'm applauding your exceptional brilliance and class once more.
Samira
Edi, London.
Farooq! Forever bold. I agree with you that Sanusi
should pay. But nobody pays for wrongdoings in Nigeria, not Ngozi, not Diezani,
not Barth Nnaji, not Sanusi. We behave in our country in ways we dare not
outside our country.
Odoh
Diego Okenyodo, Abuja
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