In the years preceding Nigeria’s independence in 1960, Benson S.A.N., a Nigerian lawyer, rose to prominence as one of the country’s most important politicians. In the first post-independence administration, he was the Minister of Culture, Broadcasting, and Information. Following the initial military takeover in 1966, Benson spent several months behind bars. He was acknowledged as a well-known Yoruba chief and went back to practicing law. Born in Ikorodu on July 23, 1917, Theophilus Owolabi Shobowale Benson went to CMS Primary School on Agboyi Island in Lagos. His family was aristocratic from birth. He was a native of Ikorodu. Bobby Benson, a well-known musician, was his younger brother. He went to the Lagos-based CMS Grammar School. He enlisted in the customs service at the age of twenty.
Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode, Chief D.K. Olumofin, Chief Richard Akinjide, Chief Tos Benson, and Chief S.L. Akintola are shown in an iconic photograph above taken at an event in Ibadan in 1963.
This image shows TOS Benson (center) in June 1963 while visiting Berlin.
Benson was elected to the Lagos Town Council in 1950 and went on to become the city’s deputy mayor. The backing of Lagos’ multicultural electorate was crucial to Benson’s electoral success. Along with Nnamdi Azikiwe, Adeleke Adedoyin, A. B. Olorunnimbe, and trade unionist H. P. Adebola, Benson was selected as one of the NCNC’s candidates for the five Lagos seats in the Western House of Assembly in the 1951 election.
The five contenders overcame the Action Group’s rivals with ease. Benson joined the NCNC as a national officer. He traveled to London with Nnamdi Azikiwe, the NCNC President and Premier of Eastern Nigeria, to attend the Nigeria Constitutional Conference at Lancaster House.He served on the NCNC Strategic Committee and as National Financial Secretary in 1958. In addition, he chaired the Lagos branch of the NCNC and served as its chief whip in the House of Representatives. After being elected to succeed Salami Agbaje as Chairman of the Western Working Committee in 1959, he arbitrated a conflict between the Adeoye Adisa and Agbaje factions inside the NCNC.
Benson participated in the constitutional conferences that preceded Nigeria’s independence in 1960, which were held in London in 1953, 1957, 1958, and 1960. Between 1950 and 1959, he was elected to a number of NCNC platform posts. Benson chaired the Western Regional Organization Committee from 1954 to 1955. He served as the NCNC’s National Financial Secretary in May 1957. The Adisa group left the NCNC and ran for office on their own after he largely ruled in favor of the Agbaje faction. In the federal election of 1959, Benson was elected to the House of Representatives again. Because he had not resigned from his position with the Crown before to his election campaign, his win was contested.
The Federal Supreme Court overturned the Lagos High Court’s decision to declare the election invalid on this grounds after an appeal. Benson served as the first minister when the Ministry of Information was established in 1959. Benson continued to serve as a federal minister in the first post-independence administration (1 October 1960). Following independence, the Ministry of Information released publications that provided information about the nation, including the Nigerian Handbook and the Nigerian Magazine.Benson was the impetus behind the Voice of Nigeria (VON)’s founding.The government’s message that the nation should unite and overcome ethnic divisions in order to consolidate the gains of independence was disseminated through radio and television.
A spectacle titled “Operation Fantastic” was staged by K. O. Mbadiwe, who served as Minister of Aviation from March 1964 to March 1965, to commemorate the launch of flights from Lagos to New York in October 1964. He boarded the first aircraft with a group of drummers and dancers, they had a lot of success performing at different locations across the United States. This turned out to be a contentious choice. Since his ministry should be in charge of exporting Nigerian culture, Benson criticized the show. In 1972, the affair was finally resolved. The Western NCNC struggled in the early 1960s to decide whether to join the Action Group or the United Progressive Party (UPP). Whether Yorubas should identify with the Hausas or the Ibos was the main topic of discussion. Tensions between ethnic groups kept rising.
Political figures from a variety of ethnic backgrounds were accused in the newspapers at the beginning of 1964 of encouraging their ethnic group’s domination. The Igbo State Union attacked Benson, the prominent Yoruba politician, the NCNC’s vice president, and the minister of information, on these reasons. Benson’s criticisms were ignored by the local NCNC in Lagos in the lead-up to the 1964 election, which elected its four candidates through constituency caucuses. Benson’s appeal was denied by the party, and he was comfortably defeated by an Igbo candidate, he abruptly left the NCNC to run as an independent, and he defeated the Igbo NCNC opponent handily.
The military ordered the arrest of thirty southern politicians in March 1966 for “state security” grounds after seizing power of the Nigerian government earlier in January 1966. After being held at Alagbon, Benson, K. O. Mbadiwe, and M. N. Ugochuku were sent to the Ikoyi prison. The three men were first detained in a single room without a bathroom and were not permitted to have guests, the conditions under which the prisoners were held were later improved by General Ironsi.
On August 2, 1966, four days after the second military takeover, they were freed. Benson earned a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) after practicing law.Despite being an Ikorodu native, he rose to prominence as a Southwestern chief and was known as the Baba Oba of Lagos.
