Under her name, 58,000 tweets have been posted in the last six hours. It is the story of a news reporter becoming the news. Kiki Mordi, the journalist who anchored the the BBC undercover documentary, Sex for Grades, has been getting multiple knocks for sidelining a major participant of the work, Oge Obi, in sharing the prizes that have been rolling in from the documentary.
The documentary is about predatory Nigerian and Ghanaian lecturers in higher institutions who used their positions to demand for sex.
Kiki Mordi, whose real name is Nkiru Mordi, the voice and face of the documentary, is being accused by Oge Obi of ‘stealing’ her ideas and winning grants from her efforts.
Obi is the lady that played the role of a 17-year-old admission seeker who got a senior lecturer breaking all the ethics of his job. He has been sacked by the university.
The role Obi played became the crux of the documentary because she got the lecturer to compromise with the supposed 17-year-old in some ways a more than 50-year-old would not do with a child of 17.
But Obi said the documentary was her brainchild and that Kiki Modi was only allowed to do the narration.
Kiki Mordi played more than a narrator in the documentary. She got a lecturer who became romantic with her and took her to the Cold Room, the getaway of lecturers in the University of Lagos. The idea was to prove that lecturers compromise grades in the Cold Room. That part was not proven in the documentary.
Obi has called Kiki Modi a talentless fluke, claiming that whatever Modi is or has achieved so far is because she stole her idea and made it hers.
There has not been any known response from Kiki Modi, but Nigerians on social media are shocked that Kiki sidelined the brain behind the viral documentary and has gone on to win other international grants and refused to share them with Obi.
@Harry_Obi said: “Lol. How did Oge let Kiki be the face of the undercover piece that brought her to international limelight? I can never fumble that kinda bag. Lol. But speaking as someone who used to be friends with both ladies, I’m not shocked. Oge had to be the brains.
@Afolabi_Bret said: “It’s just unfortunate that—in most situations—the ones with the brains are always laid back. The ones without any intellectual substance most times have the courage and boldness to take front-lead roles.”
@RGAMeyer said: “Kiki, make sure this time you at least share whatever prize money there is with O.O and acknowledge her – given this was all her story as pitched, sourced/started. Real journalists have honour and also hold themselves to account, not just the government.”
@ContentIsKingNg said: “BBC did not even mention Oge Obi among the Sex for Grades team here. Is there something we need to know about this Kiki report?”
