A young Nigerian Akin Fadeyi,has accused the Minister of Information ,Mr
Lai Mohammed of Plagiarism . He accused the minister of plagiarizing the
recently re-orietation campaing CHANGE BEGINS WITH HIM.According to
him,the concept was his ,it was submitted to the Federal Government
through the minister who later changed the name and went to town to
launch the programme without recourse to him.The programme was launched
at an elaborate ceremony during week presided over by President
Muhammadu Buhari
Read the full statement by his partner,Omo Bazuaye.
Read the full statement by his partner,Omo Bazuaye.
HOW FG PLAGIARIZED AKIN FADEYI'S "NOT IN MY COUNTRY
* LAUNCHED IT AS "CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME
We
received with utter shock and disbelief attempt by the Federal
Government through its Ministry of Information and National Orientation
to clone and plagiarize our work, "NOT IN MY COUNTRY", in what it now
calls "Change Begins With Me.
Only a few days ago Nigeria celebrated the arrival of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook into the country.
Zuckerberg developed something extraordinary and revolutionized the IT world.
He came to Nigeria looking for and to give courage to emerging stars.
I had written then that Nigeria has a "jungle fever" that allows it to always celebrate what is foreign as against the ingenuity of its own people.
While we rolled out the drums and even engaged in what Zuckerberg wore or ate in his brief stay in Nigeria; my attention shifted to Nigerians doing remarkable things yet ignored or abandoned.
There is the case of John Obaro who created the software for Treasury Single Account {TSA}.
What did he get?
He received the biggest scorn of his life.
What I didn't realize was that I could become the next victim until Thursday, the 8th of September, 2016 when I saw that the idea we dropped in the office of the honourable Minister of Information and National Orientation, Lai Mohammed; what seems a perfect replica of it was being launched by the Minister without the consent of the real originators.
We have evidence of our communications with the Minister prior to this day.
We even have pictures of our meeting with him.
He can't deny it.
We implore him to just do the needful.
I know many would almost certainly defend anything under this govetnment; the owner of this project is a lover of APC and an ardent admirer of PMB too.
It's a shame this is happening and coming under a government one would have thought would do things differently.
As far back as 2006, Akin Fadeyi who was then the Head, Corporate Communications of MTS First Wire where I worked stumbled on an idea.
One day Akin called me and said he wanted to "pick" my brain on something.
He was my immediate boss and we had come to be very fond of each other.....I was learning fast under him and I guess he saw something in me I probably never knew was there.
But trust Akin to always have brilliant ideas.
When he started talking I immediately knew it was something big.
It was a concept to re-engineer the minds of citizens away from the filth of moral decadence the country had fallen.
First I consider it noble that such a young man could come up with such a selfless idea and be prepared to put his hard earned salary to drive it.
I was "wowed" and immediately wanted to be a part of what I instantly knew was big, something that could leave our both names on the sands of time.
But we needed a name for it so Akin invited me and another friend Ganiyu Olowu to the lagoon side of University of Lagos for some brainstorming sessions.
Between us, we came up with the name: NOT IN MY COUNTRY and decided to use the instruments of theatre or if you like drama to pass the message.
For 10 years, Akin held on to his idea, shopping for credible corporate organizations or development agencies who can partner with him.
Together with him, we spent those years in and out of locations shooting flicks; hiring professional actors like Tina Mba, the popular actor "Saka" and others.
It cost us money with Akin paying and footing most if not all of the bills.
I have deliberately called names in my narration, names of people from whom anyone can easily verify.
Sometime in 2014, we had the honour of making presentation on it to Hussaini Abdu, the Country Director of Action Aid.
I'm sure he can remember because it made a good impression on him.
We have also enjoyed tremendous support from Mr. Emeka Opara of Airtel Nigeria on this as well.
* LAUNCHED IT AS "CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME
We
received with utter shock and disbelief attempt by the Federal
Government through its Ministry of Information and National Orientation
to clone and plagiarize our work, "NOT IN MY COUNTRY", in what it now
calls "Change Begins With Me.Only a few days ago Nigeria celebrated the arrival of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook into the country.
Zuckerberg developed something extraordinary and revolutionized the IT world.
He came to Nigeria looking for and to give courage to emerging stars.
I had written then that Nigeria has a "jungle fever" that allows it to always celebrate what is foreign as against the ingenuity of its own people.
While we rolled out the drums and even engaged in what Zuckerberg wore or ate in his brief stay in Nigeria; my attention shifted to Nigerians doing remarkable things yet ignored or abandoned.
There is the case of John Obaro who created the software for Treasury Single Account {TSA}.
What did he get?
He received the biggest scorn of his life.
What I didn't realize was that I could become the next victim until Thursday, the 8th of September, 2016 when I saw that the idea we dropped in the office of the honourable Minister of Information and National Orientation, Lai Mohammed; what seems a perfect replica of it was being launched by the Minister without the consent of the real originators.
We have evidence of our communications with the Minister prior to this day.
We even have pictures of our meeting with him.
He can't deny it.
We implore him to just do the needful.
I know many would almost certainly defend anything under this govetnment; the owner of this project is a lover of APC and an ardent admirer of PMB too.
It's a shame this is happening and coming under a government one would have thought would do things differently.
As far back as 2006, Akin Fadeyi who was then the Head, Corporate Communications of MTS First Wire where I worked stumbled on an idea.
One day Akin called me and said he wanted to "pick" my brain on something.
He was my immediate boss and we had come to be very fond of each other.....I was learning fast under him and I guess he saw something in me I probably never knew was there.
But trust Akin to always have brilliant ideas.
When he started talking I immediately knew it was something big.
It was a concept to re-engineer the minds of citizens away from the filth of moral decadence the country had fallen.
First I consider it noble that such a young man could come up with such a selfless idea and be prepared to put his hard earned salary to drive it.
I was "wowed" and immediately wanted to be a part of what I instantly knew was big, something that could leave our both names on the sands of time.
But we needed a name for it so Akin invited me and another friend Ganiyu Olowu to the lagoon side of University of Lagos for some brainstorming sessions.
Between us, we came up with the name: NOT IN MY COUNTRY and decided to use the instruments of theatre or if you like drama to pass the message.
For 10 years, Akin held on to his idea, shopping for credible corporate organizations or development agencies who can partner with him.
Together with him, we spent those years in and out of locations shooting flicks; hiring professional actors like Tina Mba, the popular actor "Saka" and others.
It cost us money with Akin paying and footing most if not all of the bills.
I have deliberately called names in my narration, names of people from whom anyone can easily verify.
Sometime in 2014, we had the honour of making presentation on it to Hussaini Abdu, the Country Director of Action Aid.
I'm sure he can remember because it made a good impression on him.
We have also enjoyed tremendous support from Mr. Emeka Opara of Airtel Nigeria on this as well.
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