By Nimi Princewill.

Kiki Mordi, a 28-year-old Nigerian BBC undercover journalist shot into national prominence following the release of the BBC Africa Eye documentary, dubbed #SexForGrades.

The undercover expose was a lead into the startling spate of sexual harassment and victimization of female students by lecturers in West Africa's prestigious universities.

Revelations from the documentary has long triggered the indefinite suspension of the lecturers indicted for sexual harassment as well as smooth the way for other women to share their experiences.

Mordi, in an exclusive interview with INSIDER speaks on her hope for reforms as she continues her quest to purge the Nigerian educational system of sexual impropriety.


Read excerpts:


* One of the prominent questions from Nigerians in reaction to the BBC Africa Eye documentary has been: Why Dr. Boniface Igbeneghu and Dr. Samuel Oladipo? Why were they singled out in your quest to gather dirt on Nigerian lecturers?


Well, the simple answer is, we didn't choose any lecturer that we were going to investigate. We didn't even choose the school. We had a data gathering phase that lasted nine months; collecting information, reaching out to past and current students, examining the evidence that we were able to find, which included recordings, screenshots, etc. So, it was the evidence that led us to Dr Boniface. We didn't choose Dr Boniface, we didn't choose Unilag, we didn't choose Dr. Samuel Oladipo. The evidence we had led us to them.

As a matter of fact, Dr. Samuel Oladipo wasn't even chosen because if you watch the full documentary which is available on YouTube, during the course of our investigation, we had undercover journalists inside the offices and we also had people outside standing guard, pretending to be students. At a point, each and everyone of our undercover operatives outside were accosted at one point or the other. Dr Samuel Oladipo actually accosted me, he pulled me by my arms while I was standing guard for one of our undercover operatives. So we didn't choose these people, the evidence led us to them and in the case of Dr Boniface, he was included in our investigation after he harassed me in public.



* Have you received any threats from the lecturers or people close to them since the documentary was aired?


No, I have not received any threats from any of them. They haven't contacted me directly.



* It was learnt you dropped out of a Nigerian university as a result of sexual harassment. Can you tell us about that?


I did drop out of the university as a result of sexual harassment that lasted for so long. It was so bad that I literally had no other option than to leave. It wasn't the most beautiful experience that I ever had to have because I'm a person who enjoys education. I'm what they call a geek. I'm hoping that in my own time, I'll get to tell my story wholly as much as I can. So far so good, like you heard in the documentary, I attended one of the really good schools in Nigeria and unfortunately, I had to drop out not because of any other thing besides sexual harassment.



* What school was that?


I can't currently name the school. I will name it in my own time.



* Rumors are rife that the school was the University of Nsukka, in Enugu State. How correct is that?


I can neither confirm nor deny



* Can you identify the lecturer who harassed you while a student?


No. I can't identify the lecturer as well.



* But you definitely have plans to go after him sometime in the future?


Well, I don't go after lecturers. I think there's this misconception about what investigative journalism is. Investigative journalism is simply uncovering the truth with a lot of professionalism and thorough work done because it's a lot to actually uncover wrongdoing. You need to be sure. It took us over a year to produce Sex-For-Grades, so I'm not going to as a personal vendetta go after anybody. But all I have to say on the issue of sexual harassment in Nigerian universities is that this is not the end of the story.



* Having reportedly been a medical student, what influenced your trajectory to journalism?


I was slowly weaning myself out of school and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't even honestly think that I wanted to do radio or journalism or media. I felt like I would go home and figure it out. But during that space, I had a friend who told me to escort her to a radio audition. I did, and when we got there, the person auditioning said she liked my voice and she felt like that there was something about my voice. So she told me to get in the booth to audition. Somehow, a couple of weeks later I found myself on radio and from there I discovered there's a world where my voice matters and I can actually thrive as a person.



* The content of the sex-for-grades documentary has been faulted in certain quarters for failing to establish that the lecturers actually solicited for sex, or opted to trade sexual favors for grades. What's your reaction to these claims?


My reaction is, I'm not sure what people are looking for. We uncover wrongdoing. I'm not sure if people were looking for any of our operatives to have been put in harm's way in order to expose this. That's definitely something we wouldn't do. We would never compromise the safety of our undercover operatives in the quest for uncovering the truth. Their safety is more important. We wouldn't have allowed them to have been badly hurt just to prove a point. All we've done is uncover the truth as journalists. We've not labeled any crime.

The name of the film is sex-for-grades for the pure reason that it is a culture. We have rape culture, it doesn't mean that everything is about rape. It's about all the things that enable rape. The wide spectrum... from the beginning, the grooming, the soliciting, the improper behavior, the commenting on body, all these things that makes life miserable for young women who just want to go to school. And then, at the extreme end of this culture is actual soliciting for sex. And we know that it's a journey that starts from the beginning of the person making you comfortable with them and then they move in. So, we've uncovered these lecturers doing wrong and we have not labeled what they have done. It's up to the school, the police and the government to say this is what they did and prosecute them.



* Do you plan to clampdown on other Nigerian lecturers in a similar fashion?


My hopes are that this documentary would be an eye-opener on how bad this problem is. Sexual harassment in Nigerian universities is an epidemic. I can't clampdown on anything because I'm a journalist but our leaders can. So I'm hoping that this documentary inspires them to do the right thing.



* What reforms do you hope to see in the Nigerian educational system?


A lot. As a matter of fact, we even have people who are professionals on reforms, like Non-governmental Organizations who pitch these things every day. I've heard so many brilliant ideas and I hope the government engages and partners with these people.

First of all, anything that can dissolve the power of the lecturers. As it stands right now, a Nigerian lecturer has almost one hundred percent power over a student; over their results and a lot of things. Dissolution of that power will reduce the amount of leverage a lecturer can have over a student.

Sexual harassment policy should be nationalized. Just a few schools have sexual harassment policy in Nigeria. We need to see the political will of these schools to actually do something about it. The government also needs to hold the schools accountable. If as an institution you claim to have a solid sexual harassment policy but at the end of the day, we still have hundreds of women and girls being sexually harassed, it means you have failed at your policy and you need to be held accountable. We should have bills. We should definitely revisit all these structures that will protect young women at every level.



* Do you plan to return to school?


I hope to... Yes, I do hope to return to school because I genuinely enjoy learning.



Find more on: https://insiderng.net/2019/10/11/dissolve-the-power-of-lecturers-bbc-undercover-journalist-mordi-tasks-nigerian-authorities/