Prince Soji Benson and Faze 2 belong to a distinctive chapter in the social history of Lagos. Prince Larry Olusoji Benson, generally known as Soji Benson, was the eldest son of Chief Theophilus Owolabi Shobowale Benson, the influential lawyer and politician popularly known as T.O.S. Benson. Instead of following his father into national politics, Soji became best remembered as the founder and proprietor of Faze 2, one of the recognised nightclubs of Lagos during the 1980s.
His family background placed him at the meeting point of Nigerian politics and popular entertainment. T.O.S. Benson served as a federal Minister of Information and Broadcasting from the closing years of colonial rule into the First Republic. His brother, Bobby Benson, became one of Nigeria’s most celebrated highlife musicians and entertainers.
Soji therefore grew up within a family already familiar with public life. Yet Faze 2 gave him a public identity that was distinctly his own.
Prince Soji Benson and Faze 2 in 1980s Lagos
By the 1980s, Lagos already possessed a rich and varied entertainment culture. The city had long been home to hotels, live bands, social clubs, dance halls and performance venues. Highlife had flourished in earlier decades, while places associated with Bobby Benson, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and other entertainers helped establish Lagos as one of West Africa’s important centres of popular music.
Nightclubs and discotheques increasingly became part of that landscape.
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Faze 2 emerged within this changing environment. Nigerian newspapers described Soji Benson as the founder and owner of the club, which became a popular nightlife venue during the 1980s.
The club was situated in the Jibowu and Yaba area along the Ikorodu Road corridor. Later accounts of Lagos nightlife remember Faze 2 among the venues that helped make the Mainland an important destination for evening entertainment.
Its location was significant. The broader stretch from Yaba through Jibowu, Surulere, Maryland and into Ikeja contained numerous hotels, clubs, restaurants and entertainment establishments. Lagos nightlife was not confined to a single neighbourhood, and patrons moved between venues according to music, fashion, reputation and social connections.
Faze 2 became one of the names associated with that era.
A Club Within a Larger Lagos Entertainment Culture
Faze 2 emerged from a Lagos entertainment tradition that predated the nightclub.
Bobby Benson’s Caban Bamboo had previously combined music, hospitality and entertainment. Kakadu in Yaba became associated with important musicians, including the young Fela Ransome Kuti. Later generations of clubs included Paradiso, Ozone, Klass, Climax and other venues spread across the Mainland.
Accounts of Lagos nightlife place Faze 2 within this wider network of establishments. Live bands, social joints and discotheques existed alongside one another as nightclub culture became increasingly prominent.
The opening of Ken Calebs Olumese’s Niteshift in Ikeja in 1988 introduced another influential establishment into the city’s nightlife. By then, venues such as Faze 2 had already become part of Lagos club culture.
Faze 2 earned its place in that history as one of the clubs remembered from an important period in the development of entertainment on the Lagos Mainland.
The Benson Family: Politics, Highlife and Entertainment
Soji’s place within the Benson family adds another dimension to his story.
His father, T.O.S. Benson, was one of Nigeria’s prominent lawyers and politicians during the transition from colonial rule to independence. He served in government and remained a recognised figure in Lagos public life for decades.
Soji’s uncle Bobby Benson followed a very different path. A bandleader, singer, entertainer and hotel proprietor, Bobby became one of the defining personalities of Nigerian highlife. His career helped shape the growth of urban popular entertainment in postwar Lagos.
Bobby Benson’s son, Tony Benson, later described Soji as his first cousin and identified him as T.O.S. Benson’s eldest son.
This made Soji part of a remarkable family network whose influence extended from law and politics to highlife and nightlife.
Faze 2 connected those worlds in another way. Although Soji was neither a national politician like his father nor a famous performer like his uncle, he became an entertainment entrepreneur, providing a venue where music and Lagos social life could meet.
Success, University and the Decline of Faze 2
Faze 2 did not remain successful indefinitely.
In a 2010 interview, Soji Benson recalled that in 1984 he enrolled in an evening law programme at the University of Lagos and entrusted the management of Faze 2 to others.
According to Benson, the business suffered while he concentrated on his studies. He said he left the programme after about a year and returned to manage the nightclub himself. The decline nevertheless continued, and Faze 2 eventually closed.
After leaving the nightclub business, Benson said he moved into music-related ventures.
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The closure of Faze 2 came as Lagos nightlife continued to change. Entertainment venues regularly rose and disappeared as neighbourhoods developed, competitors emerged and public tastes shifted.
Despite its eventual closure, the Faze 2 name remained part of memories of Lagos nightlife.
Faze 2 and the Music Business
Soji Benson’s entertainment interests extended beyond the nightclub.
The Faze 2 name also appeared in Nigeria’s recording industry during the 1980s. Singer Mandy Brown Ojugbana later recalled working with Faze 2 Records on a recording project.
Her 1986 album Breakthrough carried Faze 2 Records and Faze 2 Promotions credits, connecting the Faze 2 name to music production and promotion during the same decade in which the nightclub operated.
The recording venture expanded Soji Benson’s involvement in entertainment beyond providing a physical venue for Lagos nightlife.
It also reflected a period when nightclubs, musicians, record labels, promoters and urban popular culture were becoming increasingly interconnected in Lagos.
From Nightclub to a Changing Jibowu
The physical landscape around Faze 2 changed dramatically after the nightclub era.
Jibowu later became particularly associated with interstate transport companies and bus terminals. A 2018 report concerning transport operators in the district recalled that one of the buildings occupied by transport businesses had previously housed Faze 2.
The change illustrated the continuing transformation of the neighbourhood.
For later generations passing through Jibowu, the area became familiar as a transport hub filled with coaches, terminals and travellers moving in and out of Lagos. For an earlier generation, however, the same neighbourhood formed part of an active entertainment corridor.
Faze 2 belonged to that earlier landscape.
Family Disputes and Soji Benson’s Later Years
The final period of Soji Benson’s life was far removed from the glamour associated with his nightclub years.
By 2010, he was living in the Benson family compound in Ikorodu while serious disagreements existed within the family concerning his circumstances and property.
Newspaper reports from the period recorded conflicting accounts from Soji, his wife Gloria and other members of the Benson family concerning his health, property and relationships with relatives.
The disputes formed part of a wider period of tension surrounding the Benson family and the estate of T.O.S. Benson, who died in 2008.
A later report concerning the administration of T.O.S. Benson’s will identified Larry Olusoji Benson among the beneficiaries. The estate subsequently became the subject of disagreements within the family.
For Soji, these later years contrasted sharply with the period when Faze 2 had placed him within the Lagos entertainment scene.
The Death of Prince Soji Benson
Prince Soji Benson died on 12 February 2019.
His death was followed by disagreement within the family over the circumstances surrounding it and arrangements for his burial. Contemporary reports stated that he had been staying with his son Oye in Apapa before his death.
Oye Benson told The Nation that an autopsy attributed his father’s death to kidney and heart failure. Other family members questioned the circumstances of the death, while the Lagos police confirmed at the time that an investigation was under way.
When Punch reported on the matter on 17 March 2019, the newspaper described the reason for Benson’s death as unclear and quoted his cousin Tony Benson discussing conflicting information circulating within the family.
The controversy surrounding his death became an unfortunate final chapter in a life once closely associated with one of Lagos’s remembered nightclubs.
Conclusion
Prince Soji Benson and Faze 2 deserve a place in the history of Lagos because they represent an important period in the development of the city’s modern entertainment culture.
Soji inherited a famous family name, but Faze 2 provided him with an identity beyond that inheritance. As the eldest son of T.O.S. Benson and the nephew of Bobby Benson, he belonged to a family whose story already touched Nigerian politics, law and highlife music. His own contribution came through entertainment entrepreneurship.
Faze 2 occupied a recognised place in the Lagos nightclub scene of the 1980s, particularly along the Jibowu and Yaba stretch of the Mainland. It existed alongside numerous other clubs and entertainment venues during the gradual expansion of nightclub and discotheque culture in the city.
The business eventually declined and closed, while Soji’s later life was marked by family disagreements and personal difficulties. Yet the survival of the Faze 2 name in newspaper reports and recollections of Lagos nightlife shows that the club left a lasting cultural impression.
Soji Benson created a venue that became part of the social history of one of Africa’s most dynamic cities. Decades after Faze 2 closed, its name remains connected with memories of Lagos nightlife in the 1980s.
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Author’s Note
The story of Soji Benson illustrates how the history of Lagos was shaped not only by politicians and major national events, but also by the entrepreneurs, musicians and entertainment venues that influenced everyday urban life. Faze 2 belonged to a generation of Lagos clubs through which music, fashion, business and social life intersected during the 1980s. Its rise and eventual disappearance reflect the constantly changing character of Lagos, where neighbourhoods and institutions are repeatedly transformed while memories of earlier eras survive among those who experienced them.
References
Punch Newspapers, “I Don’t Know If TOS Benson’s Son Is Buried or Not, Tony Benson”, 17 March 2019.
The Nation, “Controversy over Death, Burial of Entertainment Icon Benson”, 8 March 2019.
NBF News and Saturday Sun, reproduced by The Nigerian Voice, “War in TOS Benson’s Family”, 2 August 2010.
The Nation, “Not My Will”, 9 December 2012.
Reuben Abati, THISDAY, “Celebrating Ken Calebs Olumese, The Guv’nor, At 80”, May 2024.
Independent Newspapers, “Transporters Seek N500m Compensation Over Closure of Jibowu Terminals”, 16 January 2018.
Mandy Brown Ojugbana, Breakthrough, Faze 2 Records, Nigeria, 1986.
