A pop quiz: Who is the worst dictator in Africa?

a) Robert Mugabe
b) Robert Mugabe
c) Robert Mugabe
d) None of the above

The answer seems obvious.
Thanks to extensive coverage in the news media and abundant criticism by Western governments, everyone knows that Zimbabwe’s leader is trying to hang onto power by crushing his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, who would roll to victory in the final round of elections on June 27
if his followers were not being killed, beaten, jailed, or harassed by state thugs.
Even President George W. Bush described Mugabe’s rule as a “nightmare.”

But Mugabe may not be Africa’s worst.
That prize arguably goes to Teodoro Obiang, the ruler of Equatorial Guinea whose life seems a parody of the dictator genre.
Years of violent apprenticeship in a genocidal regime led by a crazy uncle?
Check.
Power grab in a coup against the murderous uncle?
Check.
Execution of now-deposed uncle by firing squad?
Check.
Proclamation of self as “the liberator” of the nation?
Check.
Govern for decades in a way that prompts human rights groups to..
accuse your regime of murder, torture, and corruption? Check, check, and check.

Obiang, who seized power in 1979, had promised to be kinder and gentler than his predecessor, but in the 1990s, even the U.S. ambassador to Equatorial Guinea received a death threat from a regime insider, the ambassador has said, and had to be evacuated.
Not long after that, offshore oil was discovered, but the first wave of revenues—about $700 million—was transferred into secret accounts under Obiang’s personal control.
The latest chapter, written in the last month, may be the least surprising, because Obiang’s ruling party won 99 of the 100 seats in legislative elections.
A government press release, hailing Obiang as the “Militant Brother Founding President of the PDGE,” carried the headline, “Democracy at Its Peak in Equatorial Guinea.”

True, Equatorial Guinea is a small country with a population of less than 1 million, its economy is expanding in an oil boom, and Obiang’s “victory” did not require the obvious and crude violence of Mugabe’s ongoing terror. But Obiang’s enforcers don’t need to club people on the streets.
His would-be opponents are too frightened to openly demonstrate against him.
His is the Switzerland of dictatorships—so effective at enforcing obedience that the spectacle of unrest is invisible.

To understand why we hear little about Obiang, you need to know that since oil was found in the country’s waters in the Gulf of Guinea, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil, Chevron, and other firms have invested more than $10 billion to extract the treasure, transforming Equatorial Guinea into the third-largest energy exporter in sub-Saharan Africa. But the first wave of revenues seemed to disappear—the people of Equatorial Guinea remained as poor, ill-housed, uneducated, and unhealthy as ever.
Rather than putting the money into a transparent government account and using the proceeds for social services, Obiang hoarded it in accounts he personally controlled at Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C.
An investigation by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency led to millions of dollars in money-laundering fines against Riggs, but Obiang was not charged.
In fact, things only got sweeter.
In 2006, he was invited to Washington and met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who called him a “good friend.”

It’s no secret why Rice is BFF with Obiang—he controls oil that Washington wants access to.
The stance is indefensible even on pragmatic grounds.
King Abdullah is a “good friend,” too,
but the Saudi monarch controls more than 260 billion barrels of oil;
the morals-for-oil transaction is plausible if it nets us a lot of gas, albeit at $4 a gallon.
Obiang controls 1.1 billion barrels of oil—a global pittance.

this is just shameless whoring..with the ‘blinkered’ press in full collusion.

and then you have THIS.

EXXON Mobil fourth quarter profits in 2007 alone..$11.7 Billion.

are you paying attention yet?