Buhari’s ‘Next Level Logo’: Plagiarism is just a word by Fredrick Nwabufo

It appears Buhari’s campaign managers have little respect for intellectual property; obviate due diligence, and may be impotent of original ideas.

President Buhari’s ‘Next Level campaign logo’ has ticked off an avoidable controversy. The logo is said to be that of “a project of Winthrop University-School Partnership Network in collaboration with Fort Mill School District (York 4), Lancaster County School District, and Rock Hill School District (York 3). It is a Professional Development Program grant funded by the US Department of Education and administered through the Office of English Learner Acquisition (OELA)”.

Really, a look at the Winthrop project logo shows that the “creatives” behind that of the president may have engaged in a mindless lifting of intellectual property.

Did Buhari’s campaign logo not go through the rigors of vetting? Was thorough research not carried out to determine originality? Was citizen revulsion to the “plagiarised” logo not foreseen? Or was this just to irritate and annoy Nigerian netizens?

It is stupefying that at the acme of government things are still done without gravitas and grit, and without recourse to due diligence. It is even more shocking when the time taken to plan the event is considered.

To me, this is just an affliction of incompetence. Buhari now suffers the incompetence of his own managers. Chew on this. The contract for the design of the logo might have been given to a “loyal but grossly incompetent” crony, who instead of applying his mettle, lazily surfs the internet for a published logo.

The same incompetence, which afflicted the design of the Buhari campaign logo, afflicted the cake baked for Prince Charles of Wales.

Really, this embarrassment is avoidable.

Well, “plagiarism may just be a word just as recession is”. Do not quote me, please.

But what is with the presidency and the predilection for plagiarism?

Buhari’s ‘Change Begins with Me’ speech of September 2016 was found to contain similar sentences to those in Barack Obama’s 2008 victory speech.

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

A careless lifting of Obama’s “Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.”

I think, incompetence is like a stone thrown carelessly into a market. It could hit just anybody, even you.

Fredrick can be reached on Facebook: Fredrick Nwabufo, Twitter: @FredrickNwabufo