On Sunday, Teodoro Obiang will be confirmed as president in Equatorial Guinea in an election farce – for the sixth time. For the oil-rich, mouse-poor country, this means one thing above all: a disaster continues.
Rich country, rich president, poor population: Teodoro Obiang sees his country primarily as a self-service shop.
One election is Equatorial Guinea’s ballot only on paper. Although three candidates have applied for the presidency of the West African country, this is at best a democratic façade. There is no doubt that Teodoro Obiang will be confirmed in office on Sunday – as always, one is tempted to say.
The 80-year-old has headed the only former Spanish colony in sub-Saharan Africa since 1979. Back then, eleven years after independence, Obiang couped his uncle from power and later had him killed. With a tenure of 43 years, he is now the longest-serving head of government in the world.
In the last election in 2016, which international observers unanimously called a farce, Obiang officially garnered 93.7 percent of the vote. A similar result is likely to be announced this time as well.
The epitome of the resource curse
In a fair and free election, Obiang, who rarely appears in public anymore, probably wouldn’t stand a chance. His track record is a disaster.
For four decades, Obiang has so run down his country that it is now considered the epitome of the resource curse. In relation to its size, Equatorial Guinea has substantial oil reserves. Because of the billions that the government earns from their promotion and export, the country has one of the highest per capita incomes in Africa at around 12,000 dollars a year.
For most of the 1.5 million inhabitants, however, this number is irrelevant. The country’s level of development is catastrophic, even by African standards – and has even deteriorated recently: Today, around 70 percent of the population lives in poverty, life expectancy is 60 years, and the school and health systems are underfunded. According to the UN, there is no other country where the gap between per capita income and the level of human development is as great as in Equatorial Guinea.
Where the oil billions actually go has long been an open secret. This becomes clear, for example, when Obiang’s son Teodorin, who is also the country’s vice president and is considered a possible successor to his father, on social networks follows. There, the 54-year-old, who has been convicted of corruption in several Western countries, makes no secret of his penchant for luxury: sometimes he shows up in expensive sports cars, sometimes on his yacht. President Obiang is more modest in public, but has been considered one of the wealthiest heads of government in the world for years.
nepotism and repression
The fact that Obiang remains in power despite all this is mainly due to the fact that he has steadily expanded his control over the country over the years. This applies at the political level: with one exception, only representatives of the governing party sit in the two chambers of parliament, and many important posts in the government and in state-related companies are held by family members or close confidants. But it also applies to the security apparatus, whose loyalty costs Obiang quite a bit – and which he regularly uses to intimidate, imprison, torture or kill overly loud critics.
In the weeks leading up to the elections, repression increased significantly again. Dozens of NGO officials, opposition politicians and journalists have been arrested and remain detained. A human rights organization based in neighboring Cameroon warned of “a wave of repression aimed at silencing the population”.
Little international pressure
Despite these blatant abuses, international criticism of the Obiang regime has been limited. The USA in particular plays an ambiguous role in the country.
The US State Department has recently expressed concern about “reports of arrests and harassment of members of the opposition and civil society”. But these warning words seem hypocritical given that Washington has even strengthened its ties with the corrupt government in recent years and regularly sends high-ranking government officials to Malabo for flying visits.
The explanation for this contradictory US policy is quickly found: For several years, China has been trying to get the green light in Malabo to build a military base on the main island of Equatorial Guinea. For Beijing it would be the second base in Africa after Djibouti – and the first in the Atlantic.
Washington wants to prevent this at all costs and seems willing to look the other way when it comes to human rights and democracy. Just last week, in the middle of the repressive election campaign, the deputy CIA boss, Obiang Jr., met the corrupt vice president. According to the communiqué the talks in Malabo were primarily about “safety on the seas of the Gulf of Guinea”.