“Ada Omo Daddy” Review—A Familiar Rhetoric Undermined by Technical Glitches

A dig into the corpus of Nigerian home video and modern cinema will reveal narratives that make references to the traditional responsibilities of the man in the home. Not only is the man a leader in his household, but also he is expected, as a father, to be heavily involved in life-changing decisions of the child. This includes his duty to hand over his daughter’s in marriage. One, however, notices that the overt reliance on patriarchy, a system that prioritizes male dominance, has its own flaws. While the system does not necessarily celebrate weak masculinity—for instance, a man shirking his husbandly or fatherly responsibilities—It gives the deadbeat man an undeserved room for redemption, allowing him to waltz back at will into the life of a child whose upbringing he was detached from. A Yoruba adage which says baba omo ni o l’omo (translated as the father is the owner of the child) suggests that culturally, regardless of the circumstances, the father is more entitled to the child than the mother or any foster parent.

These dynamics of paternal allegiance form the basis of Ada Omo Daddy, a film produced by Mercy Aigbe and co-directed by Akay Mason and Adebayo Tijani. The family drama incorporates humour and sensationalism in a simple, familiar narrative that addresses family dynamics, inter-ethnic relations, marriage, paternity deception, the notion of second chance, and the influence of social media. Omowunmi Dada leads the cast as the titular character, also known as Perosola, a privileged yet ambitious, successful and well-trained young woman. Being of exemplary conduct and the apple of her parents’ eye, Pero is positioned as a role model for young women in society—a remote reference to the positive influence of feminism in modern society.

Following her engagement to her sweetheart Victor (Tayo Faniran), Pero, daughter to Chief Balogun and Iretiola Balogun (Sola Sobowale) discovers, to her shock, that her deadbeat biological father is Ifeanyi (Charles Okafor). Feeling disappointed and betrayed, Pero confronts her mother and builds a relationship with Ifeanyi in her quest for the truth about her paternity and formative years. As the wedding day approaches, tensions rise between Ifeanyi and the Baloguns. The deadbeat father is, however, given a chance by Chief Balogun to be represented and recognized on the day as the film ends on a celebratory note. 

While the story of Ada Omo Daddy seems attractive and relatable, it is compromised by exaggerated gestures, poor acting, reckless audio post-production and a resolution that suggests the overconfidence of the storyteller. Actors such as Sola Sobowale, Dele Odule, Charles Okafor, Mercy Aigbe and Omowunmi Dada, deliver convincing performances in the execution of their characters. We cannot particularly overlook the signature gestures of Sobowale—the outbursts, show of fury, the high-pitched, assertive voice—which are reflective of the typical traditional, no-nonsense Yoruba mother.  The inclusion of Charles Okafor in the modern cinema cast adds a unique flair to the story, making us feel nostalgic about his contributions to the home video era.

However, there are moments in the film that do too much to compromise the plot. One of them is Ifeanyi’s welcome party for Pero. Another is the wedding day scene during which one of the guests, a family member of Ifeanyi’s, briefly scolds the man for his irresponsibility. While these scenes are probably conceived for comical purposes, they come off as too basic, an insult to the intelligence of the Nollywood audience. Also, the acting of Tayo Faniran comes short of expectations. There’s barely any chemistry between his character Victor and Pero, from the proposal to scenes of him offering support and advice to his fiancée. 

Every film undergoes three stages—pre-production, production and post-production—which are intertwined and essential to successful storytelling. Audio post-production particularly involves the manipulation of sounds that are matched and blended with the film that has been shot.  It includes soundtrack and sound design, which are carefully added to motion pictures, varying the mood of every scene and spicing up the overall atmosphere of the story. This technical feature is poorly adopted in Ada Omo Daddy, with background sounds often overshadowing character dialogues and distracting the audience from the narration.

Ada Omo Daddy ends on an amicable note, capturing the  owambe culture that is prevalent among the Yoruba people and establishing smooth inter-ethnic relations between the Yoruba and Igbo. On the one hand, this ending offers easy redemption to Ifeanyi and his family, overstretching the second-chance motif and failing to punish extreme parental irresponsibility. On the other hand, it makes a call for national unity among peoples of diverse backgrounds and beliefs.

The film premiered on Netflix on February 21st, 2025, two years after its release in the Nigerian cinemas.