Kiki Mordi: Biography, career, controversies, net worth

Nkiru Kiki Mordi is a Nigerian investigative journalist, filmmaker, author, and entrepreneur.

She left school because a lecturer harassed her. She decided to work with the BBC Africa Eye to film the Sex for Grades documentary due to this experience. She received the Outstanding Radio Program Presenter (South-South) award from the Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Awards in 2016. The documentary revealed the extent of sexual harassment among Nigerian and Ghanaian lecturers.

Kiki Mordi Biography

Nkiru Mordi was born to Mr. and Mrs. Mordi in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, on August 12, 1991. She completed both her primary and secondary school in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Her father passed away before she was accepted to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, to study medicine.

She ultimately dropped out of school due to sexual harassment by a lecturer. The Sex for Grades documentary, which highlighted the extent of the harassment culture among Nigerian and Ghanaian lecturers, was inspired by her experience. 

Career

In 2015, Kiki Mordi began working as a radio host at KU Television and Radio in Benin City. She was appointed Head of Presenting in August 2017 at Women Radio (91.7FM) in Lagos.

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She established an internet petition the same year to stop police officers from abusing and exploiting young people. She filed the petition after some police officers reportedly broke into her home and accused her and her boyfriend of being cultists.

Kiki started working as a contract podcast producer at Audiation, Incorporated Freelance, Yaoundé, Cameroon, in November 2019. She was a BBC investigative journalist before she started working independently. 

Kiki Mordi made the documentary Life at the Bay in Lagos in 2019. The story talked about Tarkwa Bay residents’ struggle for survival, particularly that of the women. 

The movie was directed by Nora Awolowo, and on May 17th, 2019, it was selected by the Real Time International Film Festival (RTIFF).

The 2019 Africa International Film Festival also chose to screen it (AFRIFF).

Kiki Mordi sex for grades

The BBC Africa Eye crew, led by Kiki Mordi, presented a 13-minute documentary on the sexual harassment of students by lecturers at the universities of Ghana and Lagos on October 7, 2019. The lecturers in the viral video that accompanied the exposé were Dr. Boniface Igbeneghu of the University of Lagos, Dr. Ransford Gyampo, and Dr. Paul Kwame Butakor of the University of Ghana. 

Igbeneghu is the pastor of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria and a senior lecturer at the University of Lagos’ Faculty of Arts, while Butakor lectures at the University of Ghana’s College of Education, while Dr. Ransford Gyampo is an associate professor of political science.

In the video, Kiki Mordi, impersonating a 17-year-old admissions applicant, claimed that the investigation took her and her team nine months to complete. Following the exposé, Gyampo threatened to sue the BBC.

The University of Lagos suspended Dr. Boniface Igbeneghu due to the documentary, and the Foursquare Gospel Church requested that he leave the pulpit.

The University of Lagos closed down the “Cold Room,” where lecturers reportedly sexually harassed students.

Adekunle Gold and Simi, a married couple from Nigeria, praised Kiki Mordi for her Sex for Grades documentary.

Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president of Nigeria, and Bukola Saraki, a former Senate President, urged the government to act swiftly to stop sexual harassment in Nigerian institutions.

Kiki Mordi claimed in an interview with Sahara Reporters that she received death threats after the investigation. 

A one-hour long documentary by Kiki Mordi and her team at the BBC Africa Eye was released on October 8, 2019, and it exposed some professors who had sexually harassed students. As a result, Dr. Samuel Oladipo, a lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Lagos, was suspended. 

In response to public pressure, the Nigerian Senate reintroduced the anti-sexual harassment bill on October 9, 2019, and it was then read aloud in the chamber. The Senate enacted the anti-sexual harassment bill in Nigeria on July 9, 2020, and it calls for up to 14 years in prison for violators.

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Feminist

Kiki Mordi is a feminist. She states that her only goal is to stop women from being forgotten. She claimed stories concerning women are given less priority in Nigeria and Africa. 

Controversies

As a result of the documentary’s premiere in December 2019, Kiki Mordi has drawn criticism. She’s been charged with reaping what she didn’t sow. 

The focus of the Sex for Grades documentary was on sex trades at colleges in Ghana and Nigeria. The ownership of the idea was the subject of the initial dispute.

Kiki Mordi contends that it was the BBC audience, not Oge Obi, who proposed the Sex for Grades story in her defense against the charge that she plagiarized the work of her colleague. 

Kiki Mordi won numerous honors for the documentary, including the Michael Elliott Award for African Storytelling. Oge Obi, who portrayed the character of the 17-year-old admissions applicant at the center of the documentary, received nothing in contrast.

In the documentary, Oge Obi persuaded Boniface Igbeneghu, a 50-year-old lecturer, to reach a deal with the purported her. Observers claim that the documentary would not have been successful without Oge Obi’s contribution to the exposure of Dr. Igbeneghu. The University of Lagos has since fired the lecturer. 

Oge Obi had contended that she was the documentary’s creator and that Kiki Mordi was only permitted to narrate it. Kiki Mordi was referred to as a talentless fluke by Oge Obi, who asserted that whatever Mordi is or has accomplished thus far is because she stole her concept and made it her own.

One year after the documentary’s broadcast, in December 2020, Oge Obi made an attempt on her life using a deadly disinfectant. She completely gave up journalism after surviving the suicide and moved on to another profession.

Toyosi Ogunseye, the head of BBC in Africa, has been accused by David Hundeyin of assisting Kiki Mordi in stealing the spotlight from a piece of work that wasn’t originally hers. 

For context, let’s note that Oge Obi worked for the BBC when the Sex for Grades film was made.  While Kiki Mordi was a freelance journalist, she was enlisted as a co-worker in the production.

Kiki Mordi net worth

Kiki Mordi’s estimated value is $1.5 million.

Family

She isn’t dating right now. She has no romantic interests. There isn’t much information available regarding her prior relationships or engagements. She does not have any children.

State of origin

Kiki Mordi is from Port Harcourt in Rivers State.

Conclusion

Kiki Mordi has shown herself to be a tough and tenacious individual who didn’t let her university experience break her down or cause her to give up on her professional quest. 

Instead, she rose above it, and now she speaks for everyone who has gone through a similar struggle. She has also taken action to prevent sex-for-grade assault in universities in Ghana and Nigeria.

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