Steven Bankole Rhodes II (1890–1951) was a Nigerian barrister, jurist, and colonial legal administrator whose career reflected a gradual shift in British colonial Nigeria, from near total expatriate control of senior institutions toward limited inclusion of highly trained Nigerians in advisory government and the higher judiciary. He is remembered for serving as an unofficial member of the Legislative Council in 1942, joining the Executive Council later that year, and becoming a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1945, a notable achievement in an era when such appointments were rare for Africans.
Rhodes did not build Nigeria’s judicial system from the ground up, nor did he hold sovereign authority in colonial government, but his appointments signalled that Nigerians trained to professional standards could be trusted with senior legal responsibilities. His public life therefore sits at an important crossroads in Nigeria’s constitutional and legal development, during the years when pressure for reforms was rising and the colonial state was cautiously widening representation.
Early Life and Community Background
Rhodes was born in 1890 into a prominent Lagos family. He was the son of Steven Bankole Rhodes I and belonged to the Saro, also known as the Sierra Leonean Creole community, a group whose history is tied to nineteenth century anti slavery resettlement in Sierra Leone and later migration to coastal West Africa, including Lagos. In colonial Nigeria, Saro families were often associated with mission education, clerical and commercial work, and the professions, particularly law and medicine.
This background mattered in practical terms. It placed Rhodes within a social environment that valued literacy, formal schooling, and public service, while also requiring skilled navigation of both British legal norms and local realities. That mix, education, professional discipline, and social connection, shaped a generation of Nigerian lawyers who could argue in court, advise civic bodies, and engage colonial institutions on their own terms.
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Education and Call to the Bar
Rhodes received early education in Nigeria and later travelled to the United Kingdom for legal training. He entered Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court in London, and was called to the Bar. For many Nigerian barristers of his era, qualification in England was not simply prestigious, it was the conventional gateway into recognised legal practice under the colonial system.
After his call, Rhodes returned to Nigeria and practised as a barrister. While many details of his private casework are not widely preserved in popular sources, his later appointments indicate substantial professional standing, because colonial governors typically selected unofficial members of councils from those regarded as credible, stable, and influential within their professional community.
Building a Reputation in Colonial Lagos
By the interwar years, Lagos had become the centre of Nigeria’s modern legal profession. Courts, commercial disputes, land issues, and administrative challenges created constant demand for skilled advocates. Nigerian barristers operated within a common law environment shaped by British judicial structures, yet the society they served was diverse, with customary systems and colonial regulations intersecting in everyday disputes.
In this context, Rhodes established himself as a respected figure among the Nigerian Bar. His reputation, together with the broader colonial practice of appointing prominent professionals into advisory roles, positioned him for entry into the formal structures of colonial governance during the Second World War period.
Legislative Council Service in 1942
On 21 January 1942, Rhodes was nominated as an unofficial member of the Legislative Council of Nigeria, representing the Rivers Division. The Legislative Council functioned as the colony’s principal legislative forum, but it was not a parliament in the modern democratic sense. Its structure and authority remained tied to colonial constitutional arrangements, with final power resting with the Governor and ultimately the Crown.
As an unofficial member, Rhodes participated in deliberations on ordinances and policy direction. Unofficial members, including educated Nigerians and other non officials, often raised issues concerning local administration, economic priorities, legal procedure, and the relationship between customary institutions and colonial courts. Although their constitutional power was limited, their presence mattered because it signalled that public argument and formal representation were beginning to widen beyond the narrow expatriate administrative class.
Executive Council Appointment and Advisory Government
Later in 1942, Rhodes was appointed to the Executive Council of Nigeria. This was a central advisory body that supported the Governor on matters of administration and policy. It is important to understand the nature of the Executive Council in the colonial system, it advised, it did not govern independently. Executive decisions still depended on gubernatorial authority within the colonial framework.
Even so, Rhodes’s inclusion was significant. African membership at that level was rare, and appointments carried symbolic weight. It indicated that Nigerian professionals were being admitted into higher circles of consultation, and that the colonial administration was beginning, however cautiously, to accommodate Nigerian participation in the shaping of governmental direction.
Appointment as Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court, 1945
In November 1945, Rhodes became a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. This appointment placed him among the early Nigerian jurists to serve on the superior courts in the colonial era, at a time when senior judicial roles were still largely occupied by expatriate judges. The appointment demonstrated institutional confidence in a Nigerian barrister’s capacity to sit in higher judgment within a system grounded in common law method and colonial judicial procedure.
While not every judgment from his tenure is widely cited in popular accounts today, his presence on the bench is historically meaningful for what it represented, the slow localisation of authority and the gradual normalisation of Nigerian participation at the highest levels of legal administration.
Honours, The CBE
In 1943, Rhodes was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE. Such honours were not commonly awarded to Africans in that era and were typically reserved for individuals whose public service the colonial state regarded as particularly valuable. The honour recognised his role within the legal profession and his service within the structures of colonial governance and judicial administration.
Family Life and Continuing Legacy
Rhodes was married to Mabel Jones, and they had three children, Steven Bankole Rhodes III, commonly known as Steve Rhodes, Gloria Rhodes, and Olga Rhodes. Steve Rhodes later became known in Nigerian broadcasting and music, remembered for his work as a bandleader and radio personality during the mid twentieth century.
The wider Rhodes family name continued to appear in Nigerian legal and civic life in later decades, including within the judiciary. This continuing presence has contributed to Rhodes’s enduring recognition as part of a lineage associated with public service and the law.
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Death and Place in Nigerian Legal History
Steven Bankole Rhodes II died in November 1951. His career belongs to the period that preceded the great constitutional accelerations of the 1950s and the final approach to independence in 1960. He did not live to see independence, but his appointments stand as evidence of a changing institutional climate. They show how professional qualification, public credibility, and sustained service could, even under colonial constraints, open doors that had previously remained closed to most Nigerians.
Rhodes’s significance rests in precedent and representation, not in dramatic political leadership. He exemplified the professional Nigerian jurist who entered colonial legal institutions at senior levels and helped make such participation more thinkable, and more attainable, for those who followed.
Author’s Note
Steven Bankole Rhodes II’s story is a reminder that some of the biggest shifts in a nation’s public life begin quietly, through competence, trust, and the slow opening of institutions, his journey from the Bar to the councils of government and the Supreme Court shows how Nigeria’s legal future was being prepared long before independence arrived.
References
Colonial Office Lists, United Kingdom government publications on colonial appointments and honours
Nigeria Gazette, official notices of colonial era appointments and public service announcements
Biographical and legal history summaries of colonial Nigeria’s judiciary and constitutional institutions
