“Africa doesn’t need strong men; it needs strong institutions”, Barack Obama said on 11 July 2009 while addressing the continent during his visit to Ghana.
“Here in Ghana”, the first Black President of the United States praised, “you show us a face of Africa that is too often overlooked by a world that sees only tragedy or a need for charity”.
The people of Ghana, Mr Obama noted, “have worked hard to put democracy on a firmer footing, with repeated peaceful transfers of power even in the wake of closely contested elections”.
He acknowledged that: “Each nation gives life to democracy in its own way and in line with its own traditions. But history offers a clear verdict: Governments that respect the will of their people; that govern by consent and not coercion, are more prosperous; they are more stable, and more successful than governments that do not”.
Mr Obama clarified: “This is about more than just holding elections. It’s also about what happens between elections. Repression can take many forms, and too many nations, even those that have elections, are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy; that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there. And now is the time for that style of governance to end”.
After serving two terms, Mr Obama left the office of the President of the United States; yet, some of the very African leaders he directed his message at, are still in power, despite having been in power for well over two or three decades ahead of him.
As of 2008 when Mr Obama won the US presidency and was sworn in on 20 January 2009, Equatorial Guinea’s president, Mr Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, had been in power for 30 years already. Yet still, his presidency has outlived Mr Obama’s by seven years. He has been in power for 44 years. ‘This makes his presidency older than me by two years’ as indicated by Obama. This means, there is a whole generation of Equatoguineans who have known no other president of their country apart from Obiang Nquema Mbasogo, who is speculated to be preparing his spendthrift son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue Obiang (Teodorin), the second vice president, to succeed him.
Mbasago became president in 1979 after toppling his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema – another brutal dictator – who became his country’s first post-independence leader from 12 October 1968 until his nephew ousted him on 3 August 1979.
Mbasogo has held on to power with an iron fist ever since. At 81 years old, he is the longest-serving president of any country in the world and the second-longest consecutively-serving current non-royal national leader in the world. He has won six consecutive elections, since the country returned to civilian rule in 1982, each by more than 90 per cent, which his opponents – those courageous enough to contest him – repetitively describe as “fraudulent”. He won the sixth one in November 2022 with 94.9 per cent of the votes. In 1982 and 1989, he was the only candidate. In 1996 and 2002, he won 98 per cent of the votes. He had 103 per cent of the votes cast in one voting district in the 2002 polls. He won his fourth term in 2009 with 97 per cent of the vote and the fifth by 93 per cent.
Apart from his self-imposed longevity, corruption has been the mainstay of Obiang Nguema’s presidency. His children have variously been accused of bankrolling their lavish lifestyle through embezzlement of funds from the tiny (a population of about 1.5 million people) oil-rich Central African country’s coffers. From expensive yachts, mansions and Michael Jackson memorabilia, Teodorin, as Mbasogo’s heir-apparent is called, has constantly made the news for all the bad reasons.
“Through relentless embezzlement and extortion, Vice President Nguema Obiang shamelessly looted his government and shook down businesses in his country to support his lavish lifestyle, while many of his fellow citizens lived in extreme poverty,” as noted by Leslie R. Caldwell, the US Assistant Attorney General. He said this in a statement in 2014 regarding a $35-million mansion and a Ferrari which Teodorin was alleged to have acquired in the US with a $300-million corrupt money. “After raking in millions in bribes and kickbacks, Nguema Obiang embarked on a corruption-fuelled spending spree in the United States”, the US Assistant Attorney General said at the time.
Another of his sons, Ruslan Obiang Nsue, in January 2023, was arrested and placed under house arrest on suspicion of selling a national aircraft, ATR 72-500.
“Ruslan Obiang has confessed that he was the person who sold Ceiba’s ATR, I will not allow myself to be carried away by familiarism or favouritism, which is why I have ordered his immediate arrest and handing him over to justice,” his half-brother, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue said on Twitter at the time.
In a typical case of ‘the pot calling the kettle black’, Teodorin himself had been sentenced by the French justice system, at the end of July 2021, to three years in prison with a suspended sentence and a 30-million-euro fine. Also, his assets in France have been confiscated. He is accused of having fraudulently built up a luxurious patrimony within the framework of “ill-gotten gains” cases. In July 2021, London also froze his financial assets in the U.K. and banned him from its territory following anti-corruption investigations.
Security Implications Of Obiang Nguema Mbasogo’s Dynastic Presidency
Equatorial Guinea is the third-richest country in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of GDP per capita in 2021 according to the World Bank, but ranked 172nd out of 180 countries in the Transparency International corruption barometer. From all indications, 44 years of one family’s stay in power has facilitated, and still creating a very fertile environment for corruption to thrive. Mbasogo’s presidency has become a dynasty, a kingdom, a chiefdom. He has normalised nepotism and corruption. He has become the face of Mr Obama’s ‘Strong Man’ characterisation. He may “sprinkle” in an election here and there but it all belies what democracy isn’t. The country’s wealth only touches his family. All these, portend ill consequences for the country. He can only persist in power by being ruthless and totalitarian because he does not have the buy-in of his people. He may be the president but has no legitimacy. He, thus, needs to use bribery, in some cases, and the hammer of the ‘Iron Man’, in most cases, to get his way. This only breeds endless corruption, endless human rights abuses, endless election fraud, endless coup attempts, endless trampling of the rights of innocent people, an endless cycle of a pretend democracy, endless side-lining by Western democratic countries, endless poverty of the ordinary Equatoguineans, and endless fleeing into exile of much-needed human resources.
Source: CISA Analyst
