The story follows a young, pregnant girl who entrusts her newborn twins to a well‑known charity, only to discover she’s unknowingly placed them in the hands of a baby‑farm operation trafficking babies for profit.
I must start by acknowledging that this is not your typical EbonyLife production. It’s not a vanity project where it’s style over substance. It doesn’t overcompensate for a thin narrative by stuffing in celebrity with no acting skills. It is also not an empty statement piece designed to flaunt EbonyLife’s production muscle through lavish sets. This series is a thoughtful attempt by EbonyLife to tell a story that focuses on the sad realities of an actual social issue- baby farming.
What did I like?
I liked the story, I liked the themes addressed. The dangers of teenage pregnancy, people who take advantage of vulnerable young girls, the evil that is baby farming, the lengths people would sometime go to have children of their own, the blurred lines between right and wrong. No matter how many times and how many projects tell these stories, it is still very important that we keep talking about these issues.
The acting and casting were the clear win. The young actresses carried the show, and it was great to see fresh faces who really nailed their roles.
Genovevah Umeh stood out as Ebun, and Ruby Akubueze made a strong impression in just a few scenes, helping set the tone for the rest of the series. Even the white cast held their own, especially Jenny Stead. This might be one of the few times Nollywood has cast white actors who can actually act. For some reason Rita Dominic and Joseph Benjamin’s performances did nothing for me. I can’t explain it but it just seemed like they were very disconnected from the characters they were playing.
Special accolades to Onyinye Odokoro who played the role of Adanna, she gave a very impressive performance as pregnant Adanna, it was her expressions for me, the look in her eyes, the way she moved, everytime she sat down, you could see the discomfort, she never forgot herself, never went out of character.
Despite how well-intentioned Baby Farm was, there were quite a few issues that affected the overall flow of the series.
What were the issues?
Character development was almost nonexistent. Joy, Em, her sister, and Cherise are characters that could have used more depth. We needed more context, more backstory, just something to help us understand who they were and why they mattered to the story. For example, I personally thought Joy, played by Folu Storms, was underdeveloped and underused. You don’t really see bloggers chasing celebrities in person for quotes and interviews, it also seemed like Joy and Cherise had some sort of history, but we never got clarity on it. Why was Joy so fixated on her? Her comment about Cherise’s miscarriage came across as harsh and personal, almost like she had a vendetta. But then the show gave us nothing, no explanation, no background.
Same thing with Emem and her sister. Who were they really? Ify did not seem to have a job or a life and (What was that hairstyle? Was it meant to say something about her personality? What? Because nothing came through). It was just difficult to connect with any of them.
Moving on, I had way too many questions while watching, so many things just didn’t add up. For example:
Joy’s death. I think this was the biggest ick for me because things just went downhill from there. Less than 24hours after she was killed, they moved the body back and forth folded it into the trunk of a car, then into the front seat, drove around Lagos with a dead body—one that had a bullet hole right in the middle of her forehead. Then the driver’s seat. What’s wrong with all that?
- The body was too limp. After death, muscle stiffening (rigor mortis) usually begins within 1–2 hours and reaches full stiffness at around 12 hours. It then starts to ease but doesn’t fully go away until about 24 to 36 hours later—at which point, the body starts to smell and break down. Judging by the film’s timeline, everything happened in under 24 hours, but Joy’s body was too pliable, moving from right to left soft and bendy. It just was not realistic.
- Ify logging into Joy’s devices made no sense. She logged into Joy’s phone, work laptop, and even her blog account. She reached out to Joy’s “media contacts” and sent a message to her followers telling them to come to a particular location, how??? Ify and Joy were literally strangers so how did she know her passwords? Plus, Joy only discovered the baby farm story the night she was killed. She hadn’t written anything about it yet. Ify also knew nothing beyond what Ebun told her, so what did she even print out? What was in that envelope? What was that guy taking pictures of? I was stressed. 😫
- They want us to believe Ify and Ebun parked a car with a corpse in broad daylight—in Lagos! and no one noticed? Come on.
Another messy part was how they got access to Cherise’s hotel suite. Two random women walked into a hotel, said they were looking for Cherise (A celebrity) and that was enough? they just let them go through? How did they even know her suite number? Let’s think about it together, if Cherise had already checked out with her husband before they arrived, technically, she no longer had a room there, Even Mr Evans showing up in the room with the babies and a gun didn’t make sense. Who let him in? Do people just walk into hotel rooms like that? Did he break the door? Pick the lock? It was never explained, and it just felt off.
The escape was another part that I didn’t like. One minute Ebun was crying in front of the white woman (I thought she’d been brainwashed again, especially since she’d been unsure about escaping from the start), then next thing, she was running away with Adanna. I was like, how?
And that chase? Easily the slowest I’ve ever seen. Pregnant Adanna and Ebun were running in the dark, in that small compound, and the security guards chasing them did not even try at all. If the writers wanted the girls to escape, they should’ve at least created a realistic delay or obstacle. This just felt lazy.
Then there was Eniye who had been mute for years, clearly waiting for the right moment to escape. And she randomly decided that was the day? In the middle of the afternoon? Why? It didn’t add up.
Moving on, personally, I thought this series started well, but as it progressed, the storytelling just felt incomplete. Joy wasn’t particularly smart or interesting, and her attitude was off-putting, so I didn’t even like the character, but still, if someone really had to die, it should have been Ify. That would’ve given Joy an arc. It would’ve opened her eyes to the real-life impact her stories can make. She would’ve grown and matured right before our eyes. Moving from a troublesome gossip blogger to someone deeply invested in the truth, it would have created a natural reason for Joy to pursue justice, take risks, and use her platform to expose the baby farm. It would have made the story feel like it was going somewhere….that something changed because of what happened.
It would’ve made sense for Joy to be the one who told Cherise what was going on and the both of them (previously enemies) would put aside their differences to expose everything and demand justice. They would’ve made waves, enough to stir up social media, name names, drop images, raise doubt, just enough to get people talking and attract real news coverage. But there was nothing, no thought, no investigation, no social media buzz. Imagine how powerful it would’ve been if Joy reached out to the sex workers in that area, told them about Emem, and they started naming friends and girls who went into that building pregnant and were never seen again? Or if Joy started connecting the dots, pointing out all the public figures linked to that NGO who suddenly had babies? Joy would have contacted the press herself and published her story herself instead of this messy situation where Ify was doing it on her behalf.
They kept on emphasizing how influential Cherise was, her global influence, her Hollywood connections, yet that angle was of no use. Cherise and her husband just…escaped? That’s it? Everything was underwhelming. How do you waste a good story?
Which brings me to the final issue: there was no big picture. Let me explain: For a series that set out to shed light on the evil that is baby farming, it didn’t really say anything new. Beyond the walls of the Evan’s Foundation, nothing happened. No wider exposure. No stats. No real awareness.
And what about the girls? They could have and should have done more with and for them, humanized them, said their names, gotten their stories out because these are people’s daughters, sisters, friends. Some of them had been missing for years. That’s how you tell a story that sticks. That’s how you leave people talking and thinking about a film for a long time.
While the series touched on the issue, it didn’t have the courage to go all the way. If it had gone further, beyond the NGO’s walls, we could’ve seen government bodies or real organizations step to help the girls and even Adanna. That way, the final scene where Adanna was holding her babies would’ve hit harder if there was actual support around her. Instead, we see a traumatized teenager with two babies, no home, no money, no job, and we’re supposed to celebrate that as a great ending? It didn’t feel like a win.
I liked Baby Farm at the start, but then it got underwhelming as it progressed. Good story, good acting from some of the cast but weak storytelling and poor directing. Still, it’s a step in the right direction for Ebony Life, hoping to see more of this from them.
My Rating:4.8/10
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Read the review of I Am Anis.
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