Charles Onunaiju
21 February 2007
opinion
Instead of the general elections scheduled for 22nd of January to produce an elected government, the Bangladeshi military had earlier on the 11th of the month ordered the largely ceremonial president to declare a state of emergency and forestall election that was doomed to be rigged. Having banned basic rights and civil political activity, the military set up a technocratic caretaker government.
The feuding politicians of the two main political parties, the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist party and opposition, Awami league, who have gone underground since the incident are been rounded up by the Army-backed administration for serious offences ranging from abuse of office and corruption. Reports suggested that ordinary citizens jolted at the pre-election brickbats are heavily relieved at the intervention of the military; 16 years after the soldiers quit the stage. In the 16 years of civilian rule, the politicians have so misbehaved as to shred completely from public consciousness, the horrors of the Junta regimes that dominated Bangladesh from when it won her secessionist war against Pakistan in 1971. The runner up to the military intervention on January 11th was very messy. The ruling party, Bangladesh Nationalist party led by Mrs. Khaleda Zia, wife of former military strong man, assassinated in 1981, has done everything it could to upstage the electoral process and turn it to its advantage. As a rule designed to forestall the undue use of the incumbency factor, the country constitution stipulates that a ruling party abdicates office three months to general election and appoints a neutral caretaker administration to oversee the voting. The ruling party in this instance appointed a caretaker, but ensured that is was packed with its partisan, in violation of the constitution. However, the desperate bid of the ruling party, and its leader Mrs. Zia to have its way, by giving itself undue advantage, was also marched by the resolute will of the Awami league opposition and its leader, Mrs. Sheikh Hasinah Wajed, the daughter of the country's first President and its independence hero, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Since 1996, when the rule on caretaker administration was instituted to organize election, the two main parties, which have alternated power between themselves since the end of military rule 16 years ago, have tried to politicize the process especially the judiciary, from where most of the appointees are drawn. The ruling BNP has been bizarre in politicizing the process. Reports say that one electoral commissioner appointed by the caretaker government has sought the BNP nomination for the election. The election process and campaigns, which has now collapsed with the return of the army, was dominated by disputes over the composition of the caretaker government and the electoral roll. Prior to the military intervention, the main opposition, Awami league and its small allies have on the 3rd January withdrew from the election process with a threat to sabotage the vote, even though polling have suggested that the opposition was cruising to victory. Already, the election, which has widely generated anxiety, because of the desperation of the ruling party has sent alarm bells across most of the region and even the United Nations.
The Army may have been encouraged to intervene after the United Nations warned on the 10th of January that it might reconsider its peace keeping contracts with the military, should it get involved in a rigged election.
However, now that the Bangladeshi Army has stepped in to arrest the drift, it is in the minds of most 145 million citizens doing the right thing. For a start, it has made a commitment to depoliticize the public institutions. It has fired the boss of the anti-corruption commission turned into an instrument of political witch hunt by the ruling party in the same way that President Obasanjo and his ruling Peoples Democratic Party has turned the Nuhu Ribadu's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. It has also disbanded the much maligned electoral commission, clearly beholden to the ruling party as much as Mr. Maurice Iwu - led INEC is a department of the ruling party and its autocratic leader. As if what ails Bangladesh, is the same cankerworm that has eaten away the fibre of Nigerian society, the new military-backed administration has promised to rectify a chronic power shortage and on January 31st gave nod to an Indian company to build a 240 MW Power Station.
Politics and public life in Bangladesh and Nigeria is much the same. Besides sharing almost equal number of citizens, the two countries politicians, public servants and businessmen have shared top league in world corruption index, according to the Berlin-based Transparency International. Bangladesh and Nigerian have usually interchanged first, second and third positions in world leading most corrupt nations.
Agreed, the Bangladeshi politicians have had a longer period to mend their ways and clearly failed, their Nigerian counterparts especially the ruling party has done more to corrupt public institution, violate constitutions and contemptuously treated the people as an inconvenient piece of nuisance. Mrs. Khalda Zia may have provoked the opposition into believing that she is hell bent on retaining power but she has not gone as far as declaring the election "a do or die affair" in which her party must win or the country ceases to exist as Obasanjo has threatened. President Obasanjo categorical declaration that his blighted vision powered on a fraudulent reforms must form the basis for Nigerian future is an obdurate nonsense that has no place in a democracy. Even if the vision of Obasanjo and his PDP were the brightest and best, he has no right to bind the country with it. It seems and appears more appropriate that Obasanjo is animated with the morbid fear of his personal safety and relevance, should he quit office and his party losses, than any altruistic consideration of his reform legacies. The utterances and actions of President Obasanjo since he failed to obtain the elongation of tenure has depicted a desperate despot, much concerned with preservation of misappropriated public patrimony than the perpetuation of any legacy.
Since, he muscled through his party nomination to produce a combination of Alhaji M. Umaru Yar'adua and Mr. Jonathan Goodluck, Obasanjo has grown desperate by every day that passes and pushes the country evermore to the Principe of Bangladesh and even worst.
In desperation, Obasanjo and his clique in the ruling party are redefining democratic inclusion to mean administrative exclusion; master minded by an anti-graft commission whose activities is increasingly becoming a fraudulent affront to the country's basic law or constitutional process. In the most explicit manifesto of brigandage, fraud and corruption of public office ever made, President Obasanjo assured his party men and women that " there is two much to share in the PDP. If you don't get elected, you will be appointed and even invoked God in the most reckless utterance on public office holdings. When President Obasanjo stomp speeches are dissected, it could become clear of the national tragedy, a man whose disposition could hardly qualify him for the leadership of a town union. While Obasanjo and his men drive us determinedly to the road of Bangladesh, patriots must coalesce to create a formidable bulwark against the Bangladesh of Obasanjo and his PDP.
Mr. Onunaiju, is a staff of the media trust
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