Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

About

Equatoguinean politician and former military officer who has served as the second president of Equatorial Guinea since August 1979. He is the longest-serving president of any country ever and the second-longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world.

Before Fame

He earned a degree in labor administration at what is now the Enrique Nvo Okenve National College. He joined the Colonial Guard during Equatorial Guinea's colonial period and attended the General Military Academy in Zaragoza, Spain. He also served as director of the notorious Black Beach prison.

Trivia

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 kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell." He personally made similar comments in 1993. 

Family Life

He was born in the town of Acoacán, belonging to the colony of Spanish Guinea, on the current border with Gabon, within the Continental Equatorial Guinea. He was the third of ten brothers. His uncle Francisco Macías Nguema was president until he ousted him in a bloody coup d'etat in 1979. He reportedly favors his son Teodoro Nguema to succeed him.

Associated With

In 2006, Condoleezza Rice called him a "good friend." In 2014, President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama posed with Obiang and his wife at the White House.