Plagiarism: NCS Unaware of Proposed Detective Software Installation

Following reports on Monday that the federal government is initiating the installation of plagiarism installation software, the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) said it has not been formerly briefed on the matter.

A report by Daily Trust newspaper on Monday quoted a source as the Presidency claiming that the Government will install plagiarism detection software in the computers of its speechwriters to prevent a recurrence of plagiarism in presidential speeches.

“The presidency had apologized for the incident - which it blamed on an overzealous aide - and said it wouldn’t happen again. Sources said officials in the presidency have now resolved to take a range of measures to guard against any further embarrassment.

“One of the measures will be to install plagiarism detection software to check speeches before they are delivered by the president,” an official involved in the plan told Daily Trust.

He said they all felt embarrassed by the plagiarism case, even though it was essentially the stupidity of one individual who didn’t envisage the gravity of his action.

When contacted over the plan, presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, confirmed it. He said the Presidency was determined to ensure that a case of plagiarism would never happen again.

He had earlier issued a statement in which the presidency blamed a deputy director “for the insertion of the contentious paragraph”, Daily Trsut reported.

But in a reaction, Mr. Iyiola Ayoola, acting executive secretary of NCS told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that they are unaware of such moves by the presidency.

He said, NCS believes that when the process becomes clearer the Federal Government will call on the local software developers to deliver the project.

Ayoola said, “We are not yet briefed on such plans. You know it was only last week that this issue became public. We also believe that the Federal Government by now understands the need to patronise local software developers.

“We cannot continue with the old practice of creating jobs for other countries and encouraging capital flights; local content must be given priority in other to save the economy”.

He added that NCS’ advocacy is yielding results and hopes the trend translates to more engagement of ICT professionals by the Government.