Pretentious it isn't. Beneath the giant corrugated iron roof is a shabby stage, a sprawl of picnic tables and market stalls, and young Nigerians playing pool or leaning at a bar watching West Bromwich Albion.
But look closer in one corner and a collection of artefacts point to the significance of this rundown corner of Lagos: a colourful costume, musical instruments, photographs, wind chimes and symbols of earth, water, wind and fire. This is the New Africa Shrine, a club modelled on the spiritual home of the late Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musical and political revolutionary.
The 'father of afrobeat' – a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythms – is the subject of Fela!, a musical that has won audiences, acclaim and awards on Broadway and at the National Theatre in London. It was announced this week that Fela! is coming home to Nigeria, primarily at Lagos's Eko hotel but also in a performance at the New Africa Shrine.
While Fela's eldest child, Yeni Kuti, is delighted to welcome the show, whose executive producers include the rapper Jay-Z and actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, she says its popularity is in sharp contrast to the Nigerian government's "betrayal" of her father's legacy.
"He's an inventor of music," she said, wearing a colourful headband, butterfly pattern earrings, gold bracelets and rings, and a striped blouse. "That's why it pains me when the government doesn't give him his recognition because they're not being fair. They should be proud."
Yeni, 49, sitting in a dressing room amid artworks, trophies and mirrors at the venue, which she co-owns, added: "They are failing because they don't want to face the truth. If they wanted to do Nigeria well, the way they are supposed to do it, they should not be shying away from keeping a memory like Fela's alive.
"My nephew had a common entrance exam in school and the question was this: which of these five people was not a national hero? The answer was Fela. That was common entrance. How do you think I feel? I think they are arseholes. How can you have an exam like that?"
Fela's protest songs, such as Zombie and International Thief Thief, raged against government and corporate corruption, looting and exploitation of Nigeria's poor. The military regime, incensed when Fela declared his compound the "independent Kalakuta Republic", launched an assault involving hundreds of soldiers in which Fela's mother was thrown from a window.
Yeni, semi-retired from her brother Femi Kuti's band, said: "Fela was fighting for the masses, for the people of Nigeria. Everything Fela sang about, it's not going to affect you if you are rich, you can afford to buy a yacht or go abroad three or four times a year. It's the people who have to stay here and have to eat here that it really affects.
"They respected the fact that Fela could have left Nigeria any time to go and make a career for himself anywhere. But he didn't. He stayed here and fought, and people respected that and admired him for it. Beating or no beating, he would talk about it, no nonsense."
Fela, who conducted media interviews wearing only his underpants, died in 1997 from an Aids-related illness. He was known for his love of drugs and women, once marrying his 27 dancers and singers in a single ceremony, although only 10 are shown in the musical "because we couldn't afford 27", director and choreographer Bill T Jones has said.
Yeni, who organises an annual "Felebration" at the shrine, defended her father's attitude towards women. "I would prefer the person who is honest and says look: 'I want my plenty mistresses or my plenty wives', rather than 'I would be deceiving you, you are my wife, darling I'm going for a conference, inside the plane with me is my girlfriend one, two, three, four, or however many'. There are many men that do it, even white men.
"So we have now learned that the male has a polygamous nature. Who is better, the one that is truthful about it or the one that is dishonest and has many mistresses all over the place?"
