17 Facts About Sprent Dabwido

Sprent Arumogo Dabwido was a Nauruan politician who served as President of Nauru between 2011 and 2013, and was a weightlifter.

The son of a parliamentarian, Dabwido was originally elected to the Meneng Constituency in the Parliament of Nauru at the 2004 elections.

Sprent Dabwido was the national champion of Nauru in weightlifting in 1995 and 1996.

Sprent Dabwido represented Nauru internationally winning a silver medal for his country at the 1995 Samoa Games and competed at the 1995 World Weightlifting Championships in the super heavyweight category.

The second son of former parliamentarian Audi Sprent Dabwido, Sprent Dabwido worked in public insurance before entering politics.

Sprent Dabwido was a founding member of the Naoero Amo party, and was elected to the Parliament of Nauru at the 2004 elections, defeating Nimrod Botelanga to win the seat of Meneng.

Again re-elected at the 2010 elections, Sprent Dabwido joined the opposition faction in November 2011 when Stephen resigned as president to be succeeded by Freddie Pitcher.

Sprent Dabwido supported the re-opening of the Australian-tax-payer-funded asylum seeker processing centre in Nauru, which is supported by the opposition Liberal Party of Australia but opposed by the governing Australian Labor Party.

In June 2012, Sprent Dabwido sacked his cabinet after seven months in office, citing difficulty in passing the Constitutional Amendment Parliamentary Amendments Bill, a proposed constitutional reform bill that would alter the number of members of parliament, introduce an Ombudsman Commission, and introduce a code of ethics for parliamentarians.

On behalf of Nauru, Sprent Dabwido made his first address to the United Nations General Assembly during the general debate of its sixty-seventh session, in September 2012.

Sprent Dabwido did not stand for re-election, and was replaced by Baron Waqa after the 2013 parliamentary elections.

Those accused of rioting, including Sprent Dabwido, became involved in a court case known as "Nauru 19" and Sprent Dabwido were cleared of any wrongdoing in 2018 by the Supreme Court of Nauru.

In May 2018, Sprent Dabwido was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the Republic of Nauru Hospital.

Sprent Dabwido left for Australia to undergo treatment for his condition and seek political asylum, claiming that the Nauru government was preventing him from leaving Nauru for treatment overseas.

The Nauru government has denied the claim, saying Sprent Dabwido was immediately accepted for fully funded overseas treatment for his condition.

Sprent Dabwido was in a domestic partnership with a woman named Luci.

Sprent Dabwido died from the disease on 8 May 2019, aged 46.