Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (born 5 June 1942) is an Equatoguinean politician who has been President of Equatorial Guinea since 1979. He ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in an August 1979 military coup and has overseen Equatorial Guinea’s emergence as an important oil producer, beginning in the 1990’s. Obiang was Chairperson of the African Union from January 2011 to January 2012. He is the longest-serving leader in Africa and the longest-serving president in the world.
Born into the Esanguii clan in Acoacán, Obiang joined the military during Equatorial Guinea’s colonial period and attended the Military Academy in Zaragoza, Spain. He achieved the rank of lieutenant after his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, was elected the country’s first president. Under Macías, Obiang held various jobs, including governor of Bioko and leader of the National Guard. He was also head of Black Beach Prison, notorious for the severe torture of its inmates.
After Macías ordered the murders of several members of the family they shared, including Obiang’s brother. Obiang and others in Macías’ inner circle feared the president had become insane. Obiang overthrew his uncle in August 1979 in a bloody coup d’état, and placed him on trial for his actions, including the genocide of the Bubi people, over the previous decade. Macías’ was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad on September 29, 1979.
Obiang declared that the new government would make a fresh start from Macías’ brutal and repressive regime. He granted amnesty to political prisoners, re-opened all closed places of worship, and ended the previous regime’s system of forced labor. However, he made virtually no mention of his own role in the atrocities committed under his uncle’s rule.
The country nominally returned to civilian rule in 1982, with the enactment of a slightly less authoritarian constitution. At the same time, Obiang was elected to a seven-year term as president; he was the only candidate. He was reelected in 1989, again as the only candidate. After other parties were nominally allowed to organize in 1992, he was reelected in 1996 and 2002 with 98 percent of the vote in elections condemned as fraudulent by international observers. In 2002, for instance, at least one precinct was recorded as giving Obiang 103 percent of the vote.
He was reelected for a fourth term in 2009 with 97% of the vote, again amid accusations of voter fraud and intimidation, beating opposition leader Plácido Micó Abogo.
Obiang’s rule was at first considered more humane than that of his uncle. By some accounts, however, it has become increasingly more brutal, and has bucked the larger trend toward greater democracy in Africa. Most domestic and international observers consider his régime to be one of the most corrupt, ethnocentric, oppressive and undemocratic states in the world. Equatorial Guinea is essentially a one-party state dominated by Obiang’s Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE). The constitution grants Obiang sweeping powers, including the power to rule by decree. Although opposition parties were legalized in 1992, the legislature remains dominated by the PDGE, and there is almost no opposition to Obiang’s decisions within the body. There have never been more than eight opposition deputies in the chamber. At present all of the deputies but one either belongs to the PDGE or is allied with it. For all intents and purposes, Obiang holds all governing power in the nation.
The opposition is barely tolerated; indeed, a 2006 article in Der Spiegel quoted Obiang as asking, “What right does the opposition have to criticize the actions of a government?” The opposition is severely hampered by the lack of a free press as a vehicle for their views. There are no newspapers and all broadcast media are either owned outright by the government or controlled by its allies.
In July 2003, state-operated radio declared Obiang “the country’s god” with “all power over men and things.” It added that the president was “in permanent contact with the Almighty” and “can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell.” He personally made similar comments in 1993. Macías had also proclaimed himself a god.
Obiang has encouraged his cult of personality by ensuring that public speeches end in well-wishing for himself rather than for the republic. Many important buildings have a presidential lodge, many towns and cities have streets commemorating Obiang’s coup against Macías, and many people wear clothes with his face printed on them.
Like his predecessor and other African dictators such as Idi Amin and Mobutu Sese Seko, Obiang has assigned to himself several creative titles. Among them are “gentleman of the great island of Bioko, Annobón and Río Muni.” He also refers to himself as El Jefe (the boss).[19] Since the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011, Obiang has become the world’s third longest-ruling non-royal head of state.
In an October 2012 interview on CNN, Christiane Amanpour asked Obiang whether he would step down at the end of the then-current term (2009–2016) since he had been reelected at least four times in his reign of over over thirty years. In his response, Obiang categorically refused to step down at the end of the term buy viagra tablet despite the term limits in 2011 constitution.
Abuses under Obiang have included:
“Unlawful killings by security forces; government-sanctioned kidnappings; systematic torture of prisoners and detainees by security forces; life-threatening conditions in prisons and detention facilities; impunity; arbitrary arrest, detention, and incommunicado detention.”
In 2003, Obiang told his citizenry that he felt compelled to take full control of the national treasury in order to prevent civil servants from being tempted to engage in corrupt practices. To avoid this corruption, Obiang deposited more than half a billion dollars into accounts controlled by himself and his family at Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C., leading a U.S. federal court to fine the bank $16 million for allowing him to do so. Later scrutiny by a United States Senate investigation in 2004 found that the Washington-based Riggs Bank took $300 million on behalf of Obiang from Exxon Mobil and Hess Corporation.
In 2008, the country became a candidate for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative – an international project meant to promote openness about government oil revenues – but never qualified and missed the April 2010 deadline. Transparency International includes Equatorial Guinea as one of its twelve most-corrupt states.
Beginning in 2007 Obiang, along with several other African state leaders, came under investigation for corruption and fraudulent use of funds. He was suspected of using public funds to finance his private mansions and luxuries for both himself and his family. He and his son, in particular, owned several properties and supercars in France. In addition, several complaints were filed in US courts against Obiang’s son. Their attorneys stressed that the funds appropriated by both Obiangs were taken quite legally under Equatoguinean laws, even though these laws might not agree with international standards.
The US Department of Justice alleged that Obiang and his son appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars through corruption. In 2011 and early 2012, many assets were seized from Obiang and his son by the French and American governments, including mansions, wine collections, and supercars. The United States, France and Spain are all investigating the Obiang family’s use of public funds.
Obiang, his cabinet and his family receive billions in undisclosed oil revenue each year from the nation’s oil production. Although the cabinet has made moderate increases to social spending, these remain far overshadowed by the spending on, for instance, presidential palaces. In addition, the Obiang administration has been characterized by harassment of dissenters and foreign officials seeking to report on conditions. Obiang filed a libel lawsuit in a French court against an organization he believed was demeaning his image by saying that his government had committed such acts, but the case was dismissed.
Obiang has made several pledges to commit to open governance, reduce corruption, increase transparency, and improve the quality of life and uphold the basic freedoms of his citizens. Critics say that Obiang’s government has made very little progress towards this goal, however. Several international groups have called for Obiang to:
- increase fiscal transparency and accountability by publishing all government revenues, and conducting and publishing annual audits of government accounts, including those abroad, and forcing officials to declare assets
- Disclose natural resource revenues
- Greatly increase spending alleviation of poverty
- Uphold political freedoms and rights
- Allow judicial practices to meet international standards
- Cease harassing and hindering his critics
- Allow foreign inspectors and groups to travel freely, unhindered and unharassed.
The US Justice Department has alleged that Obiang’s son also extorted funds from lumber and construction companies by inflating contractor payments by as much as 500%, then funneling the funds into a private accounts for his own use. Obiang and his cabinet have defended Kiki, as his son is known. The lawyers uphold his innocence in both US and French courts, claiming he received these funds legally though legitimate business enterprises.
Shortly after the emergence of these allegations, Obiang named his son Equatorial Guinea’s deputy permanent delegate to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which would possibly result in diplomatic immunity from prosecution. Obiang has created an independent audit task force to review the expenditures and financials of public figures in the government, screen for corruption, and increase financial transparency. The head of this task force, however, is appointed by Obiang himself.
Obiang had a close relationship with the Washington DC-based Riggs Bank. He is said to have been welcomed by top Riggs officials, who held a luncheon in his honor.Publicity regarding this relationship would later contribute to the downfall of Riggs.
On November 10, 2010, the Supreme Court of France accepted that a complaint filed by Transparency International in France on December 2, 2008, is admissible. The Supreme Court’s decision allowed the appointment of an investigating judge and the beginning of a judicial inquiry into claims that Obiang has used state funds to purchase private property in France. An article published in Forbes magazine suggested that Obiang has gathered roughly $700 million of the country’s wealth in US bank accounts.
Nguema’s opponents have accused him of cannibalism; specifically, of consuming parts of his enemies in order to gain power.Obiang reportedly favours his son Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue to succeed him.