March 30, 2017
A week back, the Nigerian social media was awash on who owns Albashir Adam Ibrahim. This was because the United State President was thought to have plagiarized his work – ‘Remember to forget’. His ancestry became the talk of the day. While Nigerlites claimed he was born in Minna but grew up in kano, the Gombe people claimed his mother is from their place while his father is from Niger.
It was really an interesting day to see how people were claiming Albashir. In the heat of that debate, a detailed research came up that Adam Albashir is not the true author of the poem; he also might have plagiarize the work from a certain Irish poet. Albashir went forth to claim he wrote it 10 years ago but the joke was purely on him. A plagiarism check was conducted and he was found guilty. After few hours of his fame he was exposed as a fraud; an intellectual theft. People who claimed him started disowning him in same breath, pawning him to other states. In a short span, he lost his honour.
The import of bringing the Albashir case is to serve as detriment to how most IBBUlite plagiarize without crediting the right author. Plagiarist are everywhere in IBBUL, stealing others intellectual work and making it theirs. I was a non-IBBUlite when I first discovered two authors claiming the ownership of a well crafted epistle “An Open letter to the VC”. It took me a few minutes to detect that Mahmud Abubakar (De Manager), a 400level student of Economics department was actually the true author of the epistle and not the other unrepentant plagiarist.
It has been happening with several work of mine. Many a people especially the so called ‘comrades’ will lift my entire work erasing my name. You see, it does not bother me much if you do that; it only shows how weak you are. Many people have on different occasion asked if I’m actually the real author of some of my write ups. I only ask him to check the time the two articles were published. The one that comes later should actually be the plagiarized work.
The spree to which people plagiarise this days is legendary. Some go as far as publishing your work in faraway blogs; making fame and money with your sweat, without your consent.
Muhammad Kabeer, defines plagiarism as an act of copying one else’s hell bent work, of which the plagiarist may claim the art as his/hers.
He is one form of a writer I have come to like for his solid reasoning on abstract subject. He says ” I actually wouldn’t feel excited when someone used my work without seeking my permission. This is totally against our ethics. The culprit would not go scout free”.
Sadiq Mustapha, a 200level Geology student also share his experience with a plagiarist. He goes thus, “you are robbed without knowing then the rest of the world sees you as a liar when you claim ownership of the work. The other time my work “letters to IBBUL comrades” was plagiarized. I traced the plagiarist and told him the dangers in stealing ones work and since then we became friends and he stopped plagiarising”
300 level Umar Muhammad of Adult Education and Community Development has a different view. He says “we can’t escape from such trend. We live in a hybrid society; we are all contaminated with one another so obviously plagiarism can’t be avoided”.
Sumayya Abdullahi Achida, a 300 level Adult Education and Community Development student will talk as the teacher she aspires to be. “This is our people for you. I believe it will be good if we can do something within the campus at least it will aid the growth of transparent students” she says.
I’m inclined to agree with her. We can do something in sensitizing the students on the dangers of plagiarism only if we know the crime of a person who commits the act. With regards to this, Abdullahi Umar Evuti a 300 level student of English department comes refined. The punishment of a plagiarist from his realm of knowledge is that “Plagiarism and murder case have the same punishment in the court of law. Hence, ‘intellectual theft’ is tantamount to murder”.
Dear IBBUL comrades when you lift something from far away Google making it yours, it is plagiaris; stop it.
When you copy your friend’s work from next door erasing his name, it is plagiarism; stop it.
When you look for that old book in your dad’s archive and copy its content without crediting the right author, it is plagiarism; stop it.
Plagiarism make you look banal. It makes you look weakling, an inferior grown up adult.
*#Stop Plagiarism #It is an intellectual theft. #Theft is crime. #Trust your instinct*
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