World longest serving president, Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, has elevated his son Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue from being the “second vice president” to simply vice president.
President Nguema, who has ruled the West African nation since it gained independence 37 years ago, was earlier this year reelected for the sixth term with more than 93 percent of the votes.
It was the least he has ever got in any election.
In a decree read by state television mid last week, the president said he had with immediate effect appointed his 47 year old son as the ‘Vice President of the Republic’, AFP reported.
Mangue, who has been the country’s Second Vice President since 2012, is popularly known in the US as the “Malibu-based playboy son of an African dictator” for his flashy lifestyle that saw him buy most of pop singer Michael Jackson memorabilia.
Mangue has been embroiled in a number of corruption cases in the US and France for stealing money from Equatorial Guinea and fraudulently amassing wealth out of the poor African nation.
In 2014, he was forced to surrender more than $35 million worth of his assets in the US, including a $3.2 million collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia, a $30million mansion and a $530,000 Ferrari.
Another case against him in France over the same allegations was dismissed.
President Nguema has led Equatorial Guinea since 1979, after he overthrew president Francisco Macias Nguema, who is his uncle, through a military coup.
Apart from Mangue, other members of his family occupy top positions in government incude Gabriel Mbega Obiang, his step-son, who is the Minister for Oil, whileNsue Okomo, his brother in law, is the head of GEPetrol, the National Oil Company.
Other close relatives occupying ministerial positions in the government and diplomatic positions abroad include Ruben Maye Nsue Mangue, who is the country’s ambassador to the United States.
