Grace Alheri Abdu

An experienced journalist with more than 35 years in broadcasting, Grace Alheri Abdu is the managing editor of VOA’s Hausa service. Prior to joining Voice of America in Washington D.C. in 2005, Abdu was a deputy director of news and current affairs with Plateau Radio Television Corporation in Nigeria. At VOA she covered extensively the kidnapping of the 276 female students of Chibok by Boko Haram in 2014, as well as the Nigerian presidential elections in 2011 and 2019, during which she had exclusive interviews with the main opposition leaders, presidential candidates and political leaders including the Nigerian Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Olusegun Obasanjo. She also covered the #EndSars protest in 2020. Abdu currently hosts two radio and a TV weekly show, including a weekly family-oriented radio program which is popular with young women. Abdu researches and writes on family, early marriage, gender violence, women, and child development issues. She holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in journalism from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, as well as a master’s degree in international law and diplomacy and a second master’s in religious studies, both from the University of Jos, Nigeria.