The answer is Kwame Nkrumah attempted the rapid modernization and reform of Ghana. His efforts to build a national government and to enact his socialist policies met with regional and traditional resistance. This resistance, combined with personal rivalries in the civil service and the military, laid the groundwork for the coup. The National Liberation Council, composed of military and police officers, seized power when Nkrumah was on a diplomatic trip to China and North Vietnam.