THE elites who took over from the British colonialists behaved quite badly; within five years, parts of the country including the Middle Belt  and the West were on the boil. Despite the Federal Constitution in place, the centre intervened in the West leading to bloodbath. Given these,  manifest mismanagement and evident incompetence,  the populace reacted quite positively to the coup of January 15, 1966 but it suffered two tragedies. First, the attempt failed, and opportunist officers rather than restore the elected government, imposed  military rule. Secondly, the attempted coup was so badly executed that it could not shake off the tag of  being a sectional one.