Dr. Musa Babayo, the Director of Planning, Research and Strategy Directorate of Tinubu-Shettima Campaign Council has dismissed the allegation by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party that the manifesto of their presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, was plagiarised.
The claim was dispelled by Babayo at Thursday’s official inaugural meeting of the campaign council PRS in Abuja.
The development is coming one week after the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, accused the PDP Director of Strategic Communications, Dele Momodu, of running a ‘cheap’ hatchet job to impress his ‘new paymasters.’
The Ovation Magazine publisher had labelled Tinubu’s 80-page policy document as a plagiarised version of late MKO Abiola’s ‘Hope ‘93’ manifesto, which was rehashed with Buhari’s 2015 Action Plan.
In his article titled ‘APC: Renewed hope or forlorn hope?’ Momodu disclosed that it was unfortunate Tinubu couldn’t come up with original ideas and resorted to copying the memory of a man whose hope for Nigeria was noble.
Reacting to Momodu’s ‘copy and paste’ claim on Thursday, Babayo said Tinubu’s policy document has no semblance to Abiola’s ‘Hope ‘93’ manifesto.
He said, “You know, politicians have a way of distracting their audience from the message. We are taught in business school that management is management, and I know its basic principles are planning, coordination and control. Nobody is going to reinvent the wheel. Issues keep on changing.
“That’s why I am telling you that this manifesto is not ‘copy and paste.’ It is a brand new document that has incorporated the monumental challenges and otherwise in the Nigerian state. In the security challenge that was highlighted in the Hope ’93 manifesto, there was no issue with the Maradi-Kano train line in it. Nigeria of 1993 is different from the one of today.
“I want to dismiss the comment made by the PDP Spokesman. They have a right to talk because we are already ahead of the competition. And when you are ahead of the competition, you should expect those who are following you from behind to try as much they can to shrink your market share. This political market share will continue to expand until we deliver Tinubu and Shettima as president and vice president in 2023.”
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