Father and son: President and Vice President of Equatorial Guinea

At 83 years old, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is the second president of Equatorial Guinea since the country’s independence.

He has been president since 1979 and is the second longest serving President in the world after Paul Biya Cameroon.

His son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, is the First Vice President.

He was the Second Vice President before his father elevated him fueling speculation that he will take over from his father.

Apart from being First Vice President, he serves as Minister of National Défense and Security. Additionally, he leads the country’s anti-corrüption commission.

President Obiang has overseen Equatorial Guinea’s emergence as an important oil producer, beginning in the 1990s. Obiang was Chairperson of the African Union from 2011 to 2012.

Obiang is regarded as an authorïtarīãn and is widely accused of corrùption. He has his family members in key government positions.

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 kīll without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell.”

He is said to have also personally made similar comments in 1993.

Despite these comments however, Obiang still claims that he is a devout Catholic and was invited to the Vatican by Pope John Paul II and again by Pope Benedict XVI.

In an October 2012 interview on CNN, Christiane Amanpour asked Obiang whether he would step down at the end of his term (2009–2016) since he had been reelected at least four times in his reign of over thirty years.

In his response, Obiang categorically refused to step down despite term limits in the 2011 constitution.

Forbes has said that Obiang, with a net worth of US$600 million, is one of the world’s wealthiest heads of state.

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.

Obiang then deposited more than half a billion dollars into more than sixty accounts controlled by himself and his family in a bank outside the country.

Obiang, his cabinet and his family allegedly have received billions in undisclosed oil revenue each year from the nation’s oil production.

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