Bode Thomas

Bode Thomas (1918–1953) was a Nigerian chief from Oyo and a former minster of Transport during the nation's colonial period. He was born to a wealthy trader in Lagos and attended C.M.S. Grammar School, a missionary school founded by Samuel Ajayi Crowther. After completing his studies, he started work at the Nigerian Railway Corporation. In 1939, he went to London to study law and returned later establish what became a successful practice in Lagos. [Philip Garigue, 'Changing Political Leadership in West Africa', Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. Vol. 24, No. 3, Jul., 1954. p224-225]

He was one of the founding members of the Action Group and before his death, he was the deputy leader of the political organization. Prior to his membership of the Action Group, he was a successful Lagos lawyer and was a member of the Nigerian Youth Movement. He is credited as the first prominent Nigerian political elite during the colonial era to make strong expositions for regional based political parties, the parties, he believed would be equipped with the necessary knowledge to develop their regions while forming a coalition at the center.Richard L. Sklar, Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation] He was also a leading advocate for enlisting the support of native Chiefs and Kings into the extended fold of the Action Group. [ Sklar p 104 ] The strategy later proved to be a potent framework for mass mobilization in some towns. Interestingly, Thomas and Awolowo sometimes had rival political thoughts, many of which were never settled before his death. Most of his ideas on regional parties which ended up becoming approximated with the early self government political structure were never fully reconciled with Awolowo' ideas, which were based on federalism.

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