Nelly Kalu

I am a broadcast journalist with investigative and OSINT experience. A multi-format storyteller.  Audio. Video. Text.  Media Advocate. News Product Creator.

Work has appeared in Foreign Policy, The Conversationalist, Africa Check, Dubawa, Guardian NG, News Central TV, Nigeria Info FM, JournalismFund.eu, and other publications.

Articles

The Conversationalist •

The Overturning of Roe v. Wade Didn’t Just Affect America

Nearly seven months later, a case for why some healthcare providers in Nigeria are getting nervous.

Rose sits in the waiting room of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Isolo, Lagos, waiting to receive her prescription for oral contraceptives. While her husband supports her decision, her family does not, and she is here despite their insistence on her having more children before trying them, believing that they can take away her fertility. That she’s even able to get these contraceptives would have
The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News •

No sign of support for Nigerian women shea collectors despite Denmark government N1.6 billion disbursement

In 2019, the Danish government disbursed N1.6 billion to help women shea butter producers in Nigeria. But the project closed early and reached very few of the women it targeted. Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi and Nelly Kalu travelled to Oyo and Kwara State to investigate the impact of the project.

Adebimpe, a shea nut collector, is stooped over a huge cast iron pot that has turned black. She is cleaning these pots with her group of shea butter producers in preparation for another shea oil extraction c
The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News •

Attacking Gates, attacking vaccines: How conflict, religion and conspiracy theories drive COVID-19 misinformation in Nigeria

Since the beginning of the pandemic, local conspiracy theories connected to Bill Gates have circulated in Nigeria. Last year a false rumour by The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) spread online in Nigeria and internationally that Gates had bribed the Nigerian government $10 million to pass a law to test vaccines on children.

False messaging of this nature is often successful because it builds on the high levels of mistrust for authorities that are already commonplace in Nigeria. Acc
Africa Check •

Photos of firecracker explosion in India, not air bombing in Orlu, Nigeria

The town of Orlu in Imo state, southeastern Nigeria, started trending on Twitter on 18 February with rumours of airstrikes. It was said that Nigeria’s military were bombing the town in pursuit of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the paramilitary wing of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob).

One Twitter user posted two blurry photos of an explosion, with the caption: “currently air bombardments in Orlu Imo State by Nigeria soldiers. Many innocent people have been killed with airstrik

Nigeria: Media Still Used As a Tool of Control

“The more we fight for transparency, the more it will help people be accountable.”

Fake news is a problem in Nigeria, like it is in every part of the world. I think that we have a particular problem in Nigeria because of a deep-seated mistrust for the government - or indeed any form of authority.

This mistrust has been cultivated over decades of being lied to and bullied by authority figures. For many years, Nigerian media was controlled by the government and still is to a large degree. The me
NewsWireNGR •

COVID-19 Vaccines: When Pastors Misinform

Erabor is an evangelical Pentecostal Christian living in Lekki, an affluent suburb in Lagos for the widely travelled, well-educated upper-middle-class Nigerians.

She does not trust the speed with which they produce these vaccines. “And these mRNA/DNA vaccines that change a person’s DNA nucleus are a “no-no”, she says.

She adds she will not be taking any vaccine made from aborted fetal tissues. But, she need not worry, vaccines cannot alter DNA because it does not function that way.

These clai
NewsWireNGR •

Special Report: Nigerian Catholics and the hesitation towards COVID-19 vaccines

It is 8am, worship time in Saint Mary’s Catholic Church, Trans Ekulu, Enugu, a city in Nigeria’s Southeast.

Inside the church and around the parish, people have their masks on and try to keep a physical distance from each other. But once outside, masks are off, and they abandon any semblance of adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols.

It’s the same experience in major cities in Nigeria. A look at that scene and you would be correct to think that Nigeria has finally achieved its goal of vaccinat
Dubawa •

No data to support Umahi’s claim 11.5 million Igbos live Nigeria’s North, 3 million of voting age reside in Lagos

CLAIM: Chairman of South-East Governors Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, claims 11.5million Igbos are living in northern Nigeria and that 3 million Igbo people of voting age reside in Lagos.

Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, made this statement when South-East governors visited the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike recently.

According to the Nation Newspaper that published this news update on November 10, 2020, it obtained an audio clip of Umahi saying “We have 11.5million Igbos liv
Dubawa •

Twitter user claims Obasanjo inherited $3bn in foreign reserve but how true is this?

A twitter user, Chijioke, claimed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo inherited $3bn and left $54bn in foreign reserves when he left office.

False. In 1999 when Obasanjo assumed office, Nigeria’s foreign reserve was US$5.65billion and US$51.91billion in 2007 when he left office.

A twitter user, Chijioke, claimed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo met $3 billion and left $54 billion in foreign reserve at the end of his eight years in office.

He tweeted on his handle, @Ekwulu, that “OB