ABSTRACT
Introduction Following the NIF's military coup, Mohamed Osman al Mirghani (DUP), and Mohammed Ibrahim Nugud, Secretary General of the SCP, found themselves together in Bashir's jail. Days later they were joined by Sadiq al Mahdi (Umma). Walled in with them was an improbable inmate, Hassan Turabi of the NIF. As it turned out later, the new regime sought to conceal the identity of the coup by locking in the NIF leader. Also, they might have thought that during his confinement, Turabi would be able to win over the two religious leaders to the 'Islamic' regime. Rather than falling prey to the NIF wiles, the two leaders together with their leftist partner drew a draft charter of what was to become the gospel of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)? The Charter, which was meant as a blueprint for the postBashir Sudan, failed to capture the spirit of the New Sudan and to analyse correctly the root causes of the country's crisis. Chiefly, it based its analysis on the old political assumption that the problem in Sudan was one of stability of government in Khartoum and the inordinate apportionment of power between the traditional and modern forces. On this assumption, the leaders implicitly played down the significance of the Southern war to the country's destabilization. That type of analysis did no respect to the subject.
