Sprent Dabwido

Biography

Sprent Arumogo Dabwido (16 September 1972 – 8 May 2019) was a Nauruan politician who served as the President of Nauru between 2011 and 2013, and was also a weightlifter. The son of a parliamentarian, Dabwido was originally elected to the Meneng Constituency in the Parliament of Nauru at the 2004 elections. Having served as Minister for Telecommunications in Marcus Stephen’s government from 2009, Dabwido joined the Nauruan opposition faction in November 2011 after Stephen’s resignation, and, having passed a motion of no confidence against interim president Freddie Pitcher, was elected president four days later. In his role as president, Dabwido functioned as chairman of the Cabinet of Nauru, and held various portfolios in the Nauruan government. Dabwido did not stand for re-election, and was replaced by Baron Waqa after the 2013 parliamentary elections..

Dabwido’s first major international meeting as president was at the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, as a representative of the Pacific Islands grouping of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). In his speech during the opening plenary, he evaluated the potential problems faced by islands in the Pacific Ocean resulting from rising sea levels. Reiterating the SIDS objective for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to prevent further global climate change, Dabwido called for the development of a legally binding protocol alongside the Kyoto Protocol, with reference to “mitigation actions for developing countries” and the Bali Action Plan.

After his presidency, Dabwido returned to the parliament and became part of the opposition and alleged the Nauru government of corruption and abuse of power while the government has accused him and other opposition parliamentarians of spreading “lies about the country” as a response with speaking with journalists based outside Nauru. In 2015, Dabwido and others held anti-government protests in front of the parliament and they were charged with rioting. The accused including Dabwido became involved in a court case known as “Nauru 19” and Dabwido was cleared of any wrongdoing in 2018 by the Supreme Court of Nauru.