The first republic’s elite split into self-serving and national-devoted factions.

Evidence

Much progress was made during the first republic, but the political elite was divided into two camps, one that endeavored to realize personal fortune through the exploitation of public power, and the other devoted to the national project. The debates about the draft constitution and the struggle over the municipal and parliamentary elections clearly revealed those political cleavages. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 693