‘The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives’ Review: Twisty Nigerian Drama Falls Short of Its Best Ideas

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives arrives at the Toronto Film Festival with a crowded household, dangerous secrets and enough melodrama to keep its story constantly moving. Daniel Oriahi’s adaptation of Lola Shoneyin’s novel has plenty of entertaining twists, but the film ultimately struggles to trust the heightened, mischievous tone that makes its best scenes work.

The Nigerian drama begins immediately with its central conflict. After sleeping with his fourth and youngest wife, Bolanle, Baba Segi tells her she needs to seek help for infertility. They have been married for a couple of years without having a child.

From there, Oriahi uses voiceover and flashbacks to reveal how Bolanle arrived at this point and what is happening inside Baba Segi’s complicated household.

The result is a story filled with malicious secrets, manipulation, jealousy and lies, with consequences that eventually include divorce, abandonment and death.

A New Wife Disrupts the Household

Bolanle, played by Omowunmi Dada, enters a home already ruled by three other wives.

Iya Segi, played by Iyabo Ojo, is the dominant figure in the household. Everyone except Baba Segi is expected to bow to her authority, and the other wives must seek her approval for their needs.

Iya Tope, played by Mercy Aigbe, is considerably kinder and focuses largely on the wellbeing of her daughters. The film presents her as intellectually disabled, drawing on the familiar “holy fool” character type.

Then there is Iya Femi, played by Bimbo Ademoye, the most calculating of the three. She is determined to protect her position and becomes Iya Segi’s most willing partner in plotting against Bolanle.

The arrival of a fourth wife threatens all three women.

They begin working together to undermine Bolanle and reduce her standing in the family.

Bolanle, however, repeatedly chooses what the film presents as the moral high ground. She is also the most educated of the wives, having graduated from university, a fact the story repeatedly uses to contrast her with the others’ more instinctive and sometimes ruthless methods.

The Schemes Are Often the Film’s Most Fun

The wives’ elaborate attempts to weaken Bolanle give the movie some of its funniest moments.

Their plotting pushes the film beyond straightforward domestic drama and into comic territory, particularly when the characters’ exaggerated reactions become almost theatrical.

The performances are similarly heightened.

At first, the three older wives function almost like a Greek chorus, reacting to and commenting on Bolanle’s presence.

As their individual histories emerge, Ojo, Aigbe and Ademoye are given more complicated material to play.

They are particularly effective when they do not speak.

Their exaggerated facial expressions and synchronized reactions frequently become jokes in themselves. One of the film’s most amusing sequences comes during Bolanle’s wedding, when the three women react almost in perfect unison to what is happening around them.

Dada takes a different approach.

Bolanle is the film’s grounded character, and because she is written as more realistic than the other women, Dada’s performance is correspondingly restrained. That provides an important contrast, although it can also make Bolanle seem less interesting than the women whose behavior is more unpredictable.

A Story Built Around Secrets

The screenplay, adapted from Shoneyin’s novel by Oriahi, Adze Ugah, Mo Abudu and Heidi Uys, is interested in more than household intrigue.

Its themes include patriarchy, gender-based hypocrisy and women’s sexual pleasure within traditional Nigerian marriages.

The film has plenty of material to work with, and its increasingly complicated secrets keep the narrative moving.

But the same twists that make the setup engaging eventually become a problem.

As the story approaches its conclusion, several secrets suddenly come to light through confessions that feel insufficiently motivated.

Instead of allowing the plot to uncover its mysteries organically, the screenplay sometimes appears to simply have its characters explain everything.

That makes the final stretch considerably less compelling than the setup.

The Costumes Tell Their Own Story

Oriahi demonstrates a strong command of the film’s craft, although the costumes by Yolanda Okereke stand out most clearly.

Color is used throughout the film to suggest relationships and divisions inside the household.

Initially, the first three wives often wear similar colors, visually grouping them together. Bolanle and Baba Segi, meanwhile, are more closely matched, suggesting a different alliance.

As the story progresses, the women’s costumes become more individualized, reflecting their increasing separation from one another.

Bolanle and Iya Tope gradually move toward less garish and more subdued clothing, making them visual anchors against the more flamboyant characters.

The costumes therefore do more than establish period, place or personality. They quietly track the shifting alliances that drive the story.

Where the Melodrama Goes Too Far

The biggest problem is that The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives eventually becomes more melodramatic than its own material requires.

The film clearly has an appetite for excess. Its outrageous schemes, heightened performances and elaborate secrets are often what make it entertaining.

But rather than fully embracing that energy, the story repeatedly pulls back to deliver moral lessons.

The result is a strange tension between the movie’s mischievous side and its desire to make a larger moral statement.

By the end, tragedy and punishment accumulate around the characters, with those considered “good” by the screenplay largely escaping unharmed.

That approach makes the film feel less playful precisely when its heightened style could have carried it further.

A stronger commitment to its comedy and outrageousness might have allowed the movie’s dramatic excesses to become part of its appeal rather than working against it.

A Nigerian Melodrama With Plenty to Offer

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives remains an energetic and visually thoughtful Nigerian melodrama.

Its strongest qualities are its complicated household dynamics, memorable performances and willingness to move between serious social themes and comedy.

The first half in particular benefits from the constant uncertainty over what each character knows and what they are willing to do to protect their place in the family.

But the film’s final act weakens that momentum.

What begins as a lively story of secrets, jealousy and manipulation eventually becomes weighed down by explanations and moralizing.

The movie’s most memorable moments are therefore not necessarily its biggest dramatic revelations. They are the scenes in which its characters’ personalities, reactions and rivalries are allowed to become genuinely funny and unpredictable.

Reviewed online, Sept. 9, 2026, as part of the Toronto Film Festival. Running time: 119 minutes.

Cast

Odunlade Adekola, Omowunmi Dada, Iyabo Ojo, Mercy Aigbe and Bimbo Ademoye star in the film, which features dialogue in Yoruba and English.

Production

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives is an EbonyLife Media and Nile Entertainment presentation of an EbonyLife Media production.

The film is directed by Daniel Oriahi, with a screenplay by Oriahi, Adze Ugah, Mo Abudu and Heidi Uys.

Malcolm Mclean handled cinematography, with editing by Thomas Adetunji and Chinedum Iregbu and music by Kaline Njoku.

Producers are Mo Abudu, Heidi Uys, Chris Odeh, Mimi Bartels and James Amuta.