When Major Kaduna Nzeogwu and his colleagues struck on the morning of January 15, 1966, to end Nigeria's First Republic, one of their grievances was the political unrest in the western region of Nigeria. There were riots, looting, arson, and murder. Political opponents were burned alive. The event came to be known as Operation Wet-ie. And the western region was nicknamed Wild, Wild West.
In 1959, Federal Elections put Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Action Group party as the leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament. While his deputy, Chief Samuel Akintola, became the premier and leader of the government of the Western Region. Pragmatic leaders had chosen Akintola to succeed Awolowo when the latter resigned the premiership of the western region to contest the elections. The reasons that Akintola was a logical choice were not only because of his previous association with the party but moreso because of his hometown in Yoruba Land. The Action Group party had never won the Ibadan constituency and other constituencies around the Ibadan. There have always been intra-ethnic rivalries between Oyo and Ibadan on one hand and Ijebu on the other hand.