Nigeria president admits copying line from Obama speech

Nigeria: Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has admitted that he plagiarized quotes from US President Barack Obama in a speech promising change in the West African nation, revealed his office on Friday.

President Buhari gave a speech last week to launch a campaign tagged "Change begins with me," as part of his agenda to end corruption in Nigeria.

One of the paragraph in Buhari's speech urging Nigerians not to fall back "on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our country so long" was copied from Barrack Obama's after victory speech following his election as US president in November 2008.

In a statement released by president Buhari's office, it said;

"It was observed that the similarities between a paragraph in President Obama's 2008 victory speech and what President Buhari read in paragraph nine of the 16-paragraph address ... are too close to be passed as coincidence." 

"President Buhari urges Nigerians to look beyond this incident and focus on the message of change which the country needs in order to restore our cherished value systems."

"Those responsible" would be punished, the statement said, adding that a deputy director in the presidency had admitted the mistake.

The statement comes after some Nigerians took to social media to mock and joked about the incident.