Kiki Mordi has come under scrutiny since the documentary’s airing in December 2019. She has been accused of reaping from where she did not sow.
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The controversy trailing the BBC’s Sex for Grades documentary has refused to go away.
The Sex for Grades documentary centered on the sexual transactions for grades in Nigerian and Ghanaian universities.
The initial controversy was on the ownership of the idea.
Kiki Mordi
The fresh controversy involves the International Centre for Investigative Journalists (ICFJ) alleging in a statement that the face and voice of the documentary, Kiki Mordi, was being targeted for sexist violence.
Kiki Mordi has come under scrutiny since the documentary’s airing in December 2019. She has been accused of reaping from where she did not sow.
In her defence of the allegation that she stole the work of her colleague, Oge Obi, Kiki Mordi claims the audience of the BBC pitched the Sex for Grades idea, and not Oge Obi.
The documentary has earned Kiki Mordi multiple awards, including the Michael Elliott Award for African Storytelling. Meanwhile, Oge Obi, who played the role of the 17-year old admission seeker, which is the crux of the documentary, got nothing.
Oge Obi
In the documentary, Oge Obi got a 50-year-old lecturer, Boniface Igbeneghu, to compromise with the supposed 17-year-old admission seeker. Observers have said without Oge Obi’s role in exposing Dr Igbeneghu, the documentary would not have succeeded. The lecturer has since been sacked by the University of Lagos.
READ ALSO
Lagos acquires new trains, on target to deliver rail service
Oge Obi had argued that the documentary was her brainchild and that Kiki Mordi was only allowed to do the narration.
Oge Obi had called Kiki Mordi a talentless fluke, claiming that whatever Mordi is or has achieved so far is because she stole her idea and made it hers.
Oge Obi then attempted suicide using a poisonous disinfectant in December 2020, one year after the airing of the documentary. After surviving the suicide, she has abandoned journalism altogether and moved onto another career.
ICFJ
Nigerian tweeps have berated the ICFJ for alleging that Investigative Journalists, David Hundeyin, was leading a misogynist attack against Kiki Mordi.
Hundeyin has shown evidence that less than six months ago, the ICFJ hired him as a resource person in a journalism programme. He wondered if ICFJ has become a collaborator with a ‘misogynist.’
The ICFJ took side with Kiki Mordi and alleges that she was being trolled over the documentary.
Nigerians wondered why ICFJ came to the conclusion without hearing from Oge Obi and other participants of the documentary.
Toyosi Ogunseye
Both Premium Times and David Hundeyin have blamed the head of BBC in Africa, Toyosi Ogunseye, of helping Kiki Mordi to take the shine in a work that originally didn’t belong to her.
For context, Oge Obi was a staff of the BBC at the time the Sex for Grades documentary was produced. Kiki Mordi was a freelance Journalist who was co opted into the production.
According to Hundeyin, Toyosi Ogunseye sees Oge Obi and other female staff of the BBC as competition.
Ruona Meyer, another ex-staffer of the BBC who worked on the documentary Sweet Sweet Codeine, which exposes a network of pharmaceutical firms selling prohibited drugs to Nigerians, also almost suffered the same fate from Toyosi Ogunseye, according to Hundeyin and a Premium Times report.
According to the report, Toyosi almost got Ruona pulled out of the Sweet Sweet Codeine documentary in the middle of its production, but was overruled because of the critical role she was playing. Ruona resigned from the BBC a day after the documentary was aired.
