Who feels it knows it – the lyrics of an enduring reggae number. The strongman of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, has called for national dialogue, after surviving what he called a coup attempt.
In a speech broadcast nationally on state television on Wednesday, the 76-year-old leader said “dialogue and political interaction” would take place in July. According to him, “they constitute the ways to preserve peace and development”. The mood shows that the authoritarian leader is no longer at ease.
He called on Equatorial Guineans living abroad “to come home, to the country of our birth, to look for all-embracing, inclusive strategies.” The offer also applies to those who are in exile and “to all Equatorial Guineans who are dispersed in the Diaspora for political reasons, for certain political crimes.”
Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony of less than two million people, is heavily endowed with oil is held down by abject poverty and mind-boggling level of corruption. The country has been ruled with an iron fist by Obiang since August 1979.
