The "Boston Tea Party" is a popular name for the radical action taken on December 16, 1773, by a group of Boston citizens to protest the British tax on tea imported to the colonies. Scores of citizens of Boston who would not permit the unloading of three British ships that arrived in Boston in November 1773 with 342 chests of tea boarded the vessels and emptied the tea into the Boston Harbor.

Looking back on that event, John Adams, America's second president (1797-1801) who was more of a political philosopher than a politician, observed that 'The Boston Tea Party' was one of the most effective pieces of political theatre ever staged. No fan of mob action, Adams wrote of the dumping of the tea: "There is a dignity, a majesty, a sublimity, in this last effort of the patriots that I greatly admire."

Two and a quarter centuries later, an American diplomat with culinary skills, Susan Rice, is at the centre of apparently another 'most effective piece of political theatre ever staged,' in Nigeria's recent turbulent political history. What is more? In a tea party setting. This time around, the _dignity and majesty,' Adams greatly admired in the Boston event hardly finds a matching resonance with Nigerians over the Abuja tea party so to speak.

In a riveting disclosure at Tuesday's sitting of the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Commission on Human Rights Violation in Abuja, former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), Major Aliyu named Former United States Assistant Secretary of State on African Affairs Dr Susan E. Rice as the person who served tea to late Chief MKO Abiola moments before he took ill and died.

In a build-up to the tragic death of Abiola in political detention, an American delegation comprising Ambassadors Twaddel, Pickering and Rice herself had visited the then Commander-in-Chief Abdulsalami and requested to meet with Abiola. Their ostensible objective was to discuss with Abiola with a view to cobbling a way forward from the extant enervating socio-political stalemate rooted in the vitiation of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections and his subsequent detention.

On the Nigerian visitation team were Ambassador Cole, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Buhari Bala with Aliyu himself. 'The steward came in with cups tea in one flask, coffee in one flask'susan Rice accepted to take tea, Ambassador Twaddel acepted to take tea, Ambassador Pickering accepted to take coffee, late Chief Abiola declined,' Aliyu told the Oputa Panel. And more. After a few minutes the chief started coughing the coughing became serious So I asked if he wanted to take something to clear your throat, he said yes he will take the tea. I moved towards the centre table to serve him the tea, but Susan being the only lady there served him the tea and I was standing there watching over her because I also had an interest there.'

According to Aliyu, after sipping the tea Abiola's cough increased considerably. From then on it was an inexplicable down- slide to death at the Aso Clinic where he was subsequently rushed to for emergency attention. From the ensuing confusion and runarounds Aliyu disclosed that Rice offered her polite condolence: 'At this time Susan Rice told me - I send our condolences, we've seen all those things you've done, I knew it's a great shock to you people. Now is there anything you people will like us to do for you?' The rest is now history. Or is it?

Was the last tea Abiola was served with laced with some deadly substance? If yes, by whom? Why? Such implausible scenario are more the stuff of the shadowy world of cloak-and-dagger rather than conventional everyday interactions. Was Rice covertly used as the comely executioner of a project scripted in Washington? Against the background of the rather cold diplomatic reality of 'no permanent friends, but permanent interests,' not a few analysts believe that anything is possible and that besides, if Abiola's death were premeditated it would not be a novel historical occurrence.

The death of the presidential flag bearer of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in unclear circumstances has continued to spawn so many questions and even fewer answers. Suspicions of foul play have not been diminished by results of the autopsy carried out by an international team in London and Canada on July 11, 1998.

From the team's disclosures there were standing diseases that could cause sudden and unexpected death. Enlargement of the heart due to a longstanding hypertension, a condition Abiola is believed to have been a victim was identified as a possible cause of death. Related autopsy and toxicology studies carried out since the autopsy reports have both supported the and strengthened the view that heart disease caused Abiola's death. These disclosures reinforce the position that Abiola's death death was due to natural causes.

Ordinarily these should put to rest further speculations of foul play. But then Abiola's life was not ordinary, his political ambition, business empire and diverse pursuits. At press time the dust is yet to settle on the reasons why this prominent Yoruba war leader died suddenly.

In an address, "Africa at the Crossroads: The Challenge for the Future," she presented at an international forum in Nairobi, Kenya, November 21, last year, Rice noted that, 'Since the development Africa needs cannot be achieved without peace and stability, we have worked as actively as we possibly can to help prevent and resolve conflicts in Africa. In Nigeria, we condemned the military dictatorship and put sanctions in place to give at least moral impetus to its collapse. We then helped finance Nigeria's successful democratic elections last year'.

Does the impetus this elegant diplomat spoke of include what is perceived in many quarters as America's decisive breaking of the costly stalemate associated with the annulment of Nigeria's 1993 presidential election and the subsequent detention of the event's crown prince. Was the tea she served Abiola a spiked diplomatic final solution to an irksome dragging problem?

Given her experience and professional antecedents, Rice could however inconceivably, have become Abiola's velvety Delilah who was used to undo the Biblical Samson. But then these are presumptuous conjectures which only gain ground when government business is shrouded in mystery. Where then is the truth? Perhaps, only time will tell. But whatever, we never really know the whole truth.

Rice was confirmed by the Senate on October 9, 1997, and sworn in as Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs on October 22, 1997, succeeding Ambassador George Moose. Before joining the Department of State, she served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs, where she was responsible for all aspects of U.S. policy toward Africa. Prior to this position, she served as Director of International Organizations and Peacekeeping at the National Security Council, where she was responsible for the Administration's policy pertaining to the United Nations system and regional and United Nations peacekeeping.

In addition to her government experience, Rice has worked as a management consultant for McKinsey and Company, Toronto, Ontario, assisting large international corporations to solve complex strategic, operational, and organizational problems.

Rice has a D. Phil. (Ph.D.) in International Relations from New College, Oxford University, England, where she also obtained a Masters of Philosophy in International Relations. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University, Stanford, California where she received her Bachelor's degree in History with Departmental Honors and university distinction. She is a Rhodes Scholar and has been awarded the Royal Commonwealth Society's Walter Frewen Lord Prize for oustanding research in the field of Commonwealth History and the Chatham House British International Studies Association Prize for the most distinguished doctoral dissertation in the United Kingdom in the field of International Relations.

She is married with one child, traveled extensively in Africa, China, Europe, and Russia and enjoys playing tennis and basketball, cooking, and writing poetry.