3 social issues that Tough Love touches on

For Nigerian women, young or old, the rules are different. After university, they are expected to get married while their male counterparts are encouraged to pursue higher degrees or look for jobs. This tells you everything you should know about how Nigerian society views men and women. Men are pushed from an early age to chase success while women are conditioned to become wives.

Africa Magic’s new series Tough Love, which follows BFF Debola and Chinonye as they return to their Lagos homes after a year serving the country in the far North, explores this problem and more.

Debola is the daughter of single mum Sade, while Chinonye is the only child of a wealthy Igbo couple who lives miles apart. They have been besties since they were kids and are exploring adulthood and its challenges together. Tough Love focuses on some of the challenges experienced in Nigerian society.

The pressure on young girls to get married

Debola and Chinonye haven’t stayed a week with their mums, and there’s already talks to ship them to a man’s house, even though neither of them is thinking about marriage yet. Chinonye’s mum is the more insistent; just a few minutes after seeing her daughter for the first time in a year, she’s already started the marriage conversation. “Now that you have finished NYSC, the next thing is for you to be thinking of something serious,” she says to her daughter.

Absentee fathers

A few episodes into the show, and we still haven’t seen Chinonye’s dad. When Chinonye asks her mum about her dad, she says he’s not been around because he’s been busy working at Aba.

Debola’s dad, on the other hand, appears early, and we learn he has never been part of her life. The gist is, after getting Debola’s mum, Sade, pregnant, he left her to handle the pregnancy and birthing alone. So Sade raised her Debola all by herself, a journey she describes as beautiful and excruciating.

Both experiences are one of the fruits of patriarchy, which discourages men from engaging in domestic activities.

The struggles of Nigerian women

The entire plot of the series is told from the female characters’ perspective, and we see a lot of their struggles. The mothers who have to cater to their kids alone because the fathers are absent. Debola and Chinonye, who can’t get an apartment because they aren’t married and are continuously pushed by their mums to get married. The series explores more headaches like workplace harassment and demeaning views of older women as expired sexual beings.

If you want to see more, Tough Love comes express to Showmax, after showing on Africa Magic Showcase daily.