From Page to Cinema: Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives Heads to the Big Screen

Some stories refuse to stay quiet. They move from page to stage, from whispered conversations to public reckoning. Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives is one of those stories. First published in 2010, the novel has lived many lives already, translated into several languages, staged in London, debated in book clubs and classrooms. Now, it is preparing for perhaps its loudest life yet: a full-length feature film set to hit cinemas in December 2026.

Produced by Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife Films in partnership with Silverbird Group, Genesis Group, and Nile Media Entertainment Group, the adaptation signals not just another Nollywood literary crossover but a deliberate attempt to tell a complex Nigerian story at scale, for local and international audiences alike.

The film adaptation of The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives has been in conversation for years. Back in June 2020, the project was announced as a Netflix series. That plan has now evolved into a feature film, arguably a more fitting format for a story that thrives on tension, revelation, and slow-burning emotional collapse.

The film is directed by Daniel Oriahi, whose work has shown a strong grasp of psychological weight and character-driven storytelling. The screenplay is written by Adze Ugah, tasked with the difficult job of compressing a layered, deeply internal novel into visual language without losing its bite.

EbonyLife Group leads production, joined by Genesis Group, Nile Media Entertainment Group, and Silverbird Group, names that matter when it comes to cinema distribution and audience reach in Nigeria and beyond. The planned release is December 2026, with screenings expected in Nigeria and international territories, including the UK.

One look at the cast list and it becomes clear that this project is not playing small.

Odunlade Adekola, Iyabo Ojo, Mercy Aigbe, Bimbo Ademoye, Omowunmi Dada, Shaffy Bello, Lateef Adedimeji, Kunle Remi, Bolaji Ogunmola, Bimbo Manuel, Tina Mba, Daniel Etim Effiong, Femi Branch, Rotimi Fakunle, Bukumi “Kiekie” Adeaga-Ilori, Bisola Aiyeola, and others star in this story.

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At its core, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives is not really about polygamy. It’s about power. About how masculinity is measured, defended, and sometimes fabricated. Baba Segi is an illiterate but affluent man in Ibadan who builds his identity on one thing: his ability to father children. The proof of his worth walks around his compound calling him “Baba.”

For years, his household has appeared functional. Iya Segi, Iya Femi, and Iya Tope coexist, raise children, and manage tensions quietly. Then Bolanle arrives, educated, young, and childless. Her presence is a mirror that the house does not want to look into.

Bolanle’s inability to conceive becomes the excuse. But beneath that is fear. Because Bolanle asks questions. She goes to the hospital. She trusts medicine. And medicine, inconveniently, tells the truth.

What follows is the unravelling of a lie so old that even the women who created it barely remember where it started. None of the children are Baba Segi’s. Each wife found survival elsewhere, drivers, meat sellers, sons of wealthy madams, because survival, for women like them, often demanded silence and strategy.

When Baba Segi finally learns the truth, it destroys him not because he has been betrayed, but because his entire sense of self collapses. The thing he thought made him a man never belonged to him.

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The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives coming to the big screen is not just a literary milestone, it’s a cultural moment. It reminds us that these conversations about fertility, masculinity, deception, and survival are not new. They didn’t begin with social media or modern medicine. They have always existed, quietly, inside homes like Baba Segi’s.

As the film prepares for its December 2026 release, expectations will be high. And rightly so. This is a story that deserves to be told carefully, boldly, and without apology. Some secrets, once exposed to light, refuse to go back into the dark.