If you loved Omoni Oboli’s Wives on Strike films, released first in 2016 and later as a sequel in 2017, then I’m sure the film’s adaptation for television should get you excited. The ingredients appear to be there: crusty humour, bawdy dialogue and, of course, women taking charge of their world. The trailer features the return of Omoni Oboli herself and castmates Kenneth Okonkwo, Julius Agwu, Chioma Akpotha, Uche Jombo, Ufuoma McDermott and Kehinde Bankole.
For some context, the real O.G’s of milking a decent film idea for everything its worth is EbonyLife, who were able to successfully transition their groundbreaking melodrama ‘Fifty’ on to the small screen as it would cost way too much for them to gamble on a sequel with that many A-list celebrities (Dakore Akande and Ireti Lola-Doyle all in one production). The success of that transition has given many a Nollywood producer ideas but Omoni Oboli is the first to actually take the risk.
The TV series will also star a new ensemble of Mercy Aigbe, Wofaifada, and Sambasa Nzeribe. The trailer shows Uche Jombo as Madam 12:30 still running her locally famous restaurant, and a pregnant Kehinde Bankole who starred in the film’s first instalment. These are market women who are still in the grip of domestic violence perpetrated against them by their husbands, or any remote injustice enacted on their fellow market women. What made the Wives on Strike films interesting, and even funny, was the autonomy the women exercised: the withdrawing of “jangolova” from their husbands as an act of protest. But, ultimately, as an act of self-preservation.
Wives on Strike joins other big-to-small screen adaptations like Jenifa’s Diary and Fifty. And although details on premiere date and where to catch the forthcoming series are yet to be announced, you can check out the trailer below.
When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.
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