Thread by @InibeheEffiong

HOW I LOST MY QUOTE TO OKADIGBO

@realFFK was the first person to falsely credit my popular quote to Okadigbo. Despite the fact that I’ve provided evidence to prove that the very popular quote is mine, and not Okadigbo’s, people are still crediting it falsely to the late sage.

Fani-Kayode started this madness, and @DailyPostNGR went to town with it. There’s no day that I don’t get tagged by conscientious citizens who have been struggling to correct those that wrongly attribute it to Okadigbo.

We do not respect intellectual property in this country.

The first time that this quote ever came to public consciousness was on June 6, 2017 in my post on Facebook. It is still available online for fact checking. For ease of reference, kindly read paragraph 4 of the said Facebook post here. m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…

If any one can provide verifiable proof that this quote predates June 6, 2017, I should be seen as a liar. The truth is that there’s none. Prove me wrong.

A reporter with Daily Post, for reasons best known to him, took this quote from FFK’s social media handle and published it.

I would have excused him and Daily Post if I didn’t offer them the opportunity to fact-check and correct their error. Fani-Fakode should refer us to any book, article or newspaper publication or any verifiable record where Okadigbo made this statement. He started this plagiarism.

This is the said Daily Post article of October 20, 2017. Kindly take note of the date it was published and compare it with the date the quote appeared in my Facebook post and make your deductions.

dailypost.ng/2017/10/23/fan…

If you Google this quote, every source, reference or material that you’ll see is post June 6, 2017. There’s no evidence this quote existed before that date.

I believe the children of the deceased sage are alive, they should honour their father’s name by proving me wrong.

A sad part of this theft of my intellectual property, is that nearly all newspapers in Nigeria have published articles with this quote falsely credited to Okadigbo. @GuardianNigeria, @TheNationNews, @daily_trust, @DailyPostNGR, @THISDAYLIVE, etc, are GUILTY of this plagiarism.

@elrufai on his part, had falsely attributed the same quote to the late Bala Usman. In his own case, he did it on June 10, 2017 (four days after I originally authored the quote).

The evidence is also attached. The @thecableng published El-Rufai’s false attribution to Bala Usman.

I am tagging the newspapers to challenge them to fact-check my claims, and report their findings to the whole country. If they find evidence that this quote is originally traceable to the late Okadigbo, let them publish it for the benefit of the public.

It will be a shame if none of them accepts this challenge.

As far back as October 12, 2019, Prof. @farooqkperogi wrote an article titled: “Epidemic of plagiarism in Nigerian traditional and social media” where he referenced the plagiarism of my quote.

Efforts to correct this false attribution has failed because people will rather die in their ignorance of this issue, than accept correction. They just cannot accept the fact that a quote that the whole country is sharing, was authored by a young Inibehe Effiong, not Okadigbo.

It has also failed because the media has refused to do the responsible thing, but continues to propagate this falsehood.

Let it be known that Okadigbo was a respected citizen, I have no intention of denigrating his name or legacy. However, facts are sacred. We should be honest.

I hope that someone will have the interest to take up this issue and fact-check it.

I am available to answer any question. I also challenge such a person or persons to contact Fani-Kayode and El-Rufai for them to substantiate their attributions. Let the media be responsible.

History will vindicate the just.

The Daily Post article where the quote was reported as falsely credited by Okadigbo was published on October 23, 2017 (not October 20, 2017), please.

This morning, I woke up to see notifications on Instagram, showing that Kanayo O. Kanayo has also committed the same error and people tried to correct him. I had to make this clarification again.

I will credit anyone that can present any credible and verifiable proof, that it was Okadigbo who authored this quote, or that it existed before June 6, 2017 with N200,000.

It’s disgusting how many insist on a lie because they believe I’m too young to have said these words. Sad!

This is the full version of the falsehood that people have been circulating. You can see here that @THISDAYLIVE used a full page in January 2020 to publish my June 6, 2017 quote, which FFK falsely credited to Okadigbo. Thisday stated here that they culled it “from the internet”.