Guinean Opposition between Two "National Dialogues" (1993-2014)

Abstract

Equatorial Guinea, a country with an area of a little over 28,000 km2 and
a population of around 700,000, has been exploiting vast amounts of oil since 1996 and has been suffering an atypical political evolution since 1991. Obiang Nguema, the dictator who is in absolute power since 1979, when he overthrew his protector and uncle Macías (president since the country’s Independence in 1968, and with whom he had collaborated closely), promised to bring democracy to the country in tune with Mitterrand’s speech in La Baule (1990). In November 2014, the so-called 5th Platform for National Dialogue took place, as a result of which it became clear that 23 years after the legalization of political parties, and 22 years since the National Pact (1st Platform for Dialogue), the aforesaid process has not made any progress. The failure was reflected in the fact that the CPDS, the FDR and the legitimate faction of the UP, three of the few groups which can properly be termed “opposition”, left the 5th Platform for Dialogue. The rest of the legalized parties which attended the Platform, although the regime tries to make them pass off as opposition, are parties which support the government of the
PDGE, Obiang’s party, and are themselves in the government as well. And those who came back from exile and attended the Platform are a negligible part of the over thirty Equatoguinean political groups which are in exile. An atypical exile, by the way: for, in the past few years, many exiles have made several round trips to Guinea. A fragmented opposition, thus weakened and unable to organize itself and to become a true alternative to the current regime. And the dictatorship continues, because both power and opposition have the same behavior regarding key elements of institutionalism: attachment to official posts, legal slackness, an absence of aims and programmes. But while Obiang breaks the law in order to keep himself in government with the support of oil, this same attitude thwarts the opposition from getting organized and achieving a unity of action.