Although in 2016, he stated in an interview that he would not run for office again, the 80-year-old mayor was reportedly convinced by his staff that changing the baton during this period of time in power would be a big risk.
Having completed more than 43 years in power, Teodoro Obiang Ngema Bashogo is the longest-serving leader in the world – excluding only monarchies. Equatorial Guinea’s president secured re-election to a sixth term on Saturday with 94.9 percent of the vote in this small — but oil-rich — central African state, one of the most isolated and authoritarian regimes in the world. the world.
In 2016, when he was re-elected with 93.7% of the vote, he was said to be grooming one of his sons to succeed him, Vice President Teodoro Ngema Obiang Mange — known as Teodorin — a lover of opulence and luxury, who has convicted in France of “illegal profits”.
The 80-year-old African head of state had limited his public appearances and at the same time Teodorin was focusing on him. As of mid-December last year, most expected the ruling party to anoint Teodorin as its presidential candidate in his father’s place. But Teodoro Obiang Ngema Bashogo appears to have been convinced by his staff that a handover would be risky at a time when falling hydrocarbon revenues and the Covid-19 pandemic have made the country even more dependent on foreign funding.
The Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) has temporarily postponed announcing its presidential candidate until the 80-year-old head of state is back in the limelight.
“I have been in power for a long time, but the people still want me to be their president. This is the last time I will be a candidate,” he said in 2016 to the weekly newspaper Jeune Afrique. But it seems he’s reconsidered.
The very strict Teodoro Obiang – unlike his son – is said to follow a healthy and ascetic lifestyle, and exercise daily.
Obsession with coup attempts
On August 3, 1979, he led the military coup that overthrew his uncle, the bloodthirsty dictator Francisco Macia Nguema, who was executed by firing squad two months later.
He never ceased to fear that he might at some point be overthrown himself in a military coup. His praetorian guard is made up of his countrymen, but “for fear of the Jews” his closest bodyguards are Israelis, and palace security is partly outsourced to Zimbabwean and Ugandan guards.
Since taking power, he claims to have foiled at least ten coup or assassination attempts, blaming them on the exiled opposition and “foreign forces”.
Teodoro Obiang Ngema Bashogo took over an economy without great resources, but luck smiled on him with the discovery of a significant amount of oil in the country’s territorial waters in the early 1990s.
Equatorial Guinea, a very sparsely populated country, was in 2021 the third richest country in Africa in terms of GDP per capita, according to World Bank data. However, wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few families, while the vast majority of the 1.4 million inhabitants live below the poverty line.
The court adventures of “Prince” Teodorin
Equatorial Guinea is among the most corrupt countries in the world, according to non-governmental organizations.
Teodorin Obiang (54 today), the president’s son, has been sentenced to a three-year suspended prison sentence and fined 30 million euros for an “illegal gains” case in France. In the UK his assets have been frozen and he has been banned from living there for “corruption” and “misappropriation of public funds”. In the US he was forced to forfeit $26 million in assets to end corruption charges.
In this small country, which political opponents of the Obiang dynasty call the “North Korea of ​​Africa”, arrests and disappearances of dissidents are common and many have found refuge abroad, particularly in Spain.
RES-EMP
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
