HE IS surrounded by an elite unit of foreign soldiers, pays homage to the skull of an ancestor and is said to eat his enemies’ testicles.
Just after 4pm on Saturday, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, referred to by his subjects in Equatorial Guinea as the Father behind the Gates, acquired one of the symbols of the super wealthy when he took possession of his latest toy, a $55 million (£30.6 million) Boeing 737-700. As the jet banked low in celebration over Malabo airport, the small crowd of dignitaries on the tarmac stood and marvelled at the wealth of a man who a few years ago was just another unheard-of African dictator.
On future journeys the President will be able to enjoy his own presidential suite, a king-size bed and state-of-the-art satellite communication centre, not to mention a bathroom so over the top that the door handles and taps are all plated with gold. It will be flown by two Argentinian pilots and boasts seven long-range fuel tanks, enough to fly non-stop to Dallas in the United States, where rumour has it that the 62-year-old leader has been seeking treatment for prostate cancer.
Until not so long ago President Obiang was a typical African despot, a man whose portrait adorned every wall and who ruled by fear over his impoverished nation, earning him the usual criticisms from human rights organisations but barely a raised eyebrow from anybody else.
Even before an attempted coup in March, for which Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of Baroness Thatcher, stands accused of providing finance, the President’s ambitions were starting to get the better of him. He was said to be concerned when the vote for him in elections in 2002 came in at only 97.1 per cent, a calamitous fall given that official returns from the previous poll in 1996 gave him 115 per cent.
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Since 1995, when Mobil discovered that Equatorial Guinea was sitting on the oil equivalent of a gold mine, the President has started to see conspiracies everywhere. Though officials deny that his health is suffering, many believe that it is only a matter of time before the succession issue becomes unavoidable. The playboy antics of his father’s favoured second son, Teodoro Nguemo Obiang, have caused dismay among some relatives. In addition to being the country ‘s Infrastructure Minister, Teodoro is a rap music entrepreneur and spends most of his time driving Lamborghinis in Paris and Hollywood.
Since the mid-1990s there have been periodic crackdowns, and jailed opposition leaders have turned up for trial with broken arms and legs. According to the US State Department, one of the President’s brothers, Armengol Ondo Nguema, who oversees security policy, orders his minions to urinate on their victims, slice their ears and smear oil on their bodies to attract stinging ants.
In June, as the President sought to reassert his authority, an exhibition in honour of his life and political career opened at the National Museum.
Yesterday the city of Malabo, the country’s capital, ground to a halt as soldiers mounted dozens of checkpoints while the President spoke at the local university. In an alarming development for the stability of west Africa, The Times understands that he has even dispatched an envoy to Russia to investigate the possibility of buying an entire squadron of MIG fighter aircraft.
In this part of Africa, sandwiched between Gabon to the south and Cameroon to the north, the paranoia is passed down from ruler to ruler. In 1968 the country was granted independence from Spain, which had used it as a foothold in Africa since the 15th century, and Macias Nguema, Obiang’s uncle, became its first president.
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In 1975 he showed his appetite for brutality when he rounded up 150 political prisoners in the local stadium and ordered his militia to kill them as Those were the Days, My Friend was played over the loud speakers.
Similar stories have dogged President Obiang since he overthrew his uncle in a coup in 1979 and had him shot. An American human rights group has placed him at sixth place in its list of the world’s ten worst despots.