Nkem Oselloka-Orakwue popularly known as Aunty Nkem of “Aunty Tales By Moonlight” loved children. She made sure children were not only seen but heard. She produced and presented programmes in the 80s and early 90s like “Tales by Moonlight”, “Speak Out” and “Society and Child” on NTA.
Nkem Oselloka-Orakwue, who clocked 74 years few days ago, was launched into the Nigerian media scene after developing the best family programme on TV for a decade in Nigeria titled: Tales by Moonlight. Auntie Nkem, as she is affectionately called, is a lady with a rare love for children, about 32 years working experience with children, as a presenter, producer, director and consultant to many international organisations.
Nkem worked for the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) from 1976 to 1991. She started her media career at NTA Enugu, where she developed programmes like Tortoise Club, Women’s World, Home Economics and Youth Forum.
Her excellence with these programmes drew the attention of her superiors who commissioned a team spearheaded by her to develop programmes for national viewership. This gave birth to Tales by Moonlight and Speak Out. Tales by Moonlight went ahead to become the most popular family programme on air, drawing an audience that include the young and old.
After retirement, she set up her own media production outfit, Glorious Diamond Production, where she leads and mentor a crop of highly talented staff from varied disciplines whose main goal is narrowed to producing media content for children, youths and the family. She is also the brain behind Children & Young People Dev Centre, an NGO that help children and young persons to discover themselves mentally, physically and morally.
In the area of child advocacy, Nkem is a dogged fighter for the right of the Nigerian child. She was in the committee that reviewed the Nigerian Draft on the Rights of the Child in 1988. In 2000, she became the founding coordinator of the Nigerian Children’s Parliament. She has also worked with the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) as a media consultant, to formulate policies that will protect the Nigerian child. She served from 2000 to 2005 as an advisory board member of the Children Television Trust International, United Kingdom. She is the President of African Children broadcasting Network, and Coordinator, “CHANGE MAKERS”.
Her expertise and wealth of experience has attracted various international organizations who have sought her expertise in coordinating events like the International Children Festival in Turkey, France, and Bulgaria form 1990 to 2005. Other events she has coordinated on several occasions includeThe International Children Art Festival (ICAF) in Washington DC, the Nigerian Children Participation at the 3rd and 4th World Summit on Media for Children in Greece (2000) and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2004) respectively. And many film festivals and workshops that include the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy, International Youth Media Summit in Belgrade, Serbia. For many years she has been a delegate at the Annual Youth Assembly at the United Nations in New York.
Nkem has been a consultant to Media, Communications and External Affairs Department at UNICEF. She has attended, facilitated, presented papers at workshops and conferences in her home country Nigeria, Germany, South Africa, New York and a long list of other events/countries. She was also a consultant for UNESCO in 2001and 2002. Nkem Oselloka-Orakwue has the undoubted goodwill in the world of children, youths and the entire family.
Nkem also holds several academic and professional certificates from Nigeria and overseas. She has received several honours and Awards in Nigeria and beyond.