Equatorial Guinea: Teodoro Obiang urges opposition in exile to return home

The President of Equatorial Guinea announces the holding of a political dialogue, which should begin next month.

For Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the aim of this round table is to “preserve peace and development”.

In a speech on state television, the head of state also called Guineans of the diaspora to return to Guinea.

“Dialogue and political dialogue are ways to preserve the peace and development that the country is currently experiencing,” said Teodoro Obiang, who has headed the country since 1979.

For the ruling party, this political dialogue is a call for Guineans of the diaspora “to return to Equatorial Guinea, our country that saw us born, to find global and inclusive strategies”.

“We send our invitation to the national dialogue that I convene today to all Equatorial Guineans dispersed in the diaspora for political reasons, for certain political offenses, to return,” said the head of the State on Monday, June 11.

But for some members of the opposition in exile, like the president of the Progress Party, Severo Moto, who lives in Spain, there is no question of responding favorably to the invitation of the head of state “even if, well obviously, I have the right and every right, if I want to return to my country”.

“In Equatorial Guinea, I was sentenced to 160 years in prison,” said the opponent.

“Whenever I write to President Obiang asking him to engage in dialogue, he never fails to remind me. The person with the least reason to accept this bogus invitation is me! I know that as soon as I have set foot in Equatorial Guinea, I will be stopped and that in two steps, three movements, I will disappear. At the moment I am speaking to you, the entire opposition and the Equatorial Guinean population demand only one thing: a real transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

If this dialogue starts as planned, in July, it will be the sixth under Teodoro Obiang’s presidency.