Yemi Odunfa’s Don’t Tell Daddy What Happened in Lagos opens with the death of an Archbishop and a family gathering to honour his legacy. Behind their carefully maintained facade of faith and respectability, however, lies a web of secrets, scandals and buried truths.
The story explores what happens when the pillars people depend on begin to crumble. Through love, faith, grief and the chaos that follows when appearances can no longer be maintained, Odunfa examines the contradictions that shape family relationships and private lives.
Published in 2024, the book featured on the Rovingheights Top 100 national bestseller list in both 2024 and 2025. It is now being adapted for the stage by filmmaker Lala Akindoju, with a performance scheduled for 3 January 2027 at the MUSON Centre in Lagos.
Odunfa speaks with The Nollywood Reporter about the personal experiences that inspired the book, the move from page to stage, and why Lagos is central to the story.
The book emerged from a period of introspection following a series of personal losses that led Odunfa to re-examine his faith. He chose grief as the story’s context because it is a universal experience.
“It is almost like an open wound we have all tried to cover with plasters,” he says.
Yet Odunfa did not want to write another heavy story about loss. Instead, he wanted readers to confront that wound in a familiar setting without losing sight of the humour and absurdity that make us human.
“I wanted to use chaos, laughter and intelligent wit as a backdrop for asking deeper questions.”
A Story About What Holds Us Together
According to Odunfa, everyone has something at the centre of their existence, whether faith, family, love or status. Don’t Tell Daddy What Happened in Lagos explores the chaos that follows when that central pillar collapses without warning.
He describes the book as an introspective family drama about love, faith, grief and secrets. Its layered storytelling relies on dialogue and monologues that carry multiple meanings, with characters whose public identities often conceal private struggles.
Every character is hiding something, and as the story unfolds, the walls they have built around their lives begin to come down.
“This story invites us to examine that wound in a warm, familiar setting, without losing sight of the humour and absurdities that make us human. Add love, kinky sex, faith and Lagos to the mix, and things can get very interesting.”
Imperfect People
Odunfa is drawn to characters who believe they are doing the right thing but whose choices often make matters worse. Their contradictions, he believes, are part of what makes them human.
Yomi, a man of faith and respected church leader who is also deeply flawed, was particularly challenging to write. Odunfa wanted to explore the relationship between faith, spiritual depth and sin without reducing the character to any one of these qualities.
“I wanted to explore the complex intersection of faith, spiritual depth and sin without diminishing the complexity of his character.”
The challenge was to tell Yomi’s story through his brokenness while still acknowledging the reverence attached to his position. That tension became an important part of the character.
Mrs O was equally compelling. Beneath her determination to put things right is a mother trying to protect her family in the only way she knows how. Her intentions are good, but the results do not always match what she hopes to achieve.
For Odunfa, stories about flawed people navigating difficult circumstances can reveal some of the most revealing truths about human behaviour.
Laughter in the Face of Grief
Life, Odunfa notes, has a way of catching people off guard. Someone can be grieving one moment and laughing the next, while absurd things can happen even in the darkest hours.
In the Nigerian context, humour often helps people cope with difficult situations. He allowed it to emerge naturally from the story rather than forcing comic moments into the narrative.
He did not believe grief had to be treated with solemnity at every turn. Laughter, he says, can help people confront truths that a more serious approach might not reach.
“I also wanted to bring a little light and laughter to people who recognise these contradictions in their own lives. Humour doesn’t diminish grief; it makes the experience more human,” he says.
Why Lagos?
Born and raised in Lagos, Odunfa says the city helped define him and also broke him. Setting the story there therefore felt natural.
For him, Lagos is more than a backdrop. It is part of the story’s personality: a city of ambition, reinvention and contradiction, where the lives people present publicly can differ sharply from their private realities.
Different worlds collide in the city, and people are constantly negotiating who they are and who they want to become. This makes Lagos an apt setting for a story in which appearances can deceive and the truth is rarely straightforward.
“There is an energy to Lagos that makes it a compelling setting for stories about family, identity and secrets.”
Working with Lala Akindoju
Odunfa and Akindoju collaborated on their first commercial theatre project and have stayed in touch since. They share a love of theatre as a form of storytelling that depends on craft and excellence.
Akindoju’s understanding of storytelling, performance and production, alongside her industry relationships, made her a strong choice to bring the book to the stage. Her experience of theatre beyond the Nigerian context was also important to Odunfa, who wanted a director capable of seeing beyond the page and translating the story into a compelling live experience.
He says he trusts her to understand the heart of the story and interpret it thoughtfully.
“Just as importantly, she is someone I trust. I have confidence in her ability to understand the heart of the story, interpret it thoughtfully and deliver it with excellence,” he says. “I believe she is the right person to bring this world to life on stage, and I’m excited about what we’re creating together.”
Odunfa is the author and executive producer of the stage adaptation, while Akindoju serves as producer and director. The production is scheduled for 3 January 2027 at the MUSON Centre in Lagos. The cast has yet to be announced.
What He’s Looking Forward To
Odunfa is particularly eager to see the characters come alive through the cast. Readers naturally form their own pictures of the characters and their world, and he is curious to see how those interpretations translate to the stage and how audiences respond to the story in a live setting.
He also values theatre’s ability to bring people together for a shared experience, allowing an entire room to respond to the same laughter, tension, silences and surprises.
“That collective experience is one of the things I love most about the medium, and I can’t wait to see how audiences connect with the story.”
What He Hopes Audiences Take Away
Odunfa hopes audiences will laugh, be moved and recognise something of their own families in the story. He also wants them to think more deeply about faith, grief, family relationships and the secrets people keep from those closest to them.
Above all, he hopes the conversation will continue after the curtain falls, whether it centres on the characters, the revelations or the uncomfortable truths the story brings to the surface.
