Analyses
US State Department "Tea Girl" Dr. Susan Rice
By
Dec 10, 2008 - 12:57:46 PM

An open letter to Senator John Kerry, Foreign Relations committee of the U.S. Senate, 7 December 2008

Dear Senator Kerry,

I write as a scholar with more that 30 years experience in southern Nigerian studies to oppose the nomination of Dr.
Susan Rice as U.N. ambassador.

As Bill Clinton's undersecretary of state for African affairs, Rice played a disgraceful role in ending the democratic
hopes of Nigeria. As everyone knows, the only credible election in Nigerian history was held on 12 June 1993 and won
by Moshood Abiola, a charismatic businessman with genuine populist tendencies -- and for this reason feared by elites
in Nigeria, Britain and the U.S.

Under mortal pressure from the Nigerian army and probably also from British MI6 (as reported to me anecdotally by
Prof. Abimbola, who was senate majority leader at the time), cowardly General Babangida cancelled the presidential
election which he had organized with backing from some credible elements of civil society, and appointed Chief Ernest
Sonekan (the chairman of U.A.C./Lever Brothers, Nigeria, the former Royal Niger Company) as caretaker until General
Abacha felt comfortable enough to seize overt control five months later.

When Abio.la tried to reclaim his stolen presidency in June 1994, Abacha jailed him, bought off the Yoruba elite and
stomped on civil society despite heroic resistance from elements of the Lagos press, many of whom had been nurtured in
Abiola's Concord publishing group (see the wonderful account by Kunle Ajibade, "Jailed for Life; a Reporter's Prison
Notes", Heinemann, Ibadan, 2003, ISBN 9781295597).

Abacha died in mysterious circumstances in June 1998, and a month later Abiola (in perilously fragile health after 4
years of torture) was visited in custody by Tom Pickering, number three in Clinton's state department, accompanied by
Dr. Susan Rice as political head of the Africa desk. By all reports, Pickering amplified the threats previously uttered to
the prisoner by Kofi Annan, Emeka Anyao.ku. and British minister Tony Lloyd, telling Abiola that he would never be
released unless he renounced his presidency. This fact alone proves how the "international community" was unanimously
complicit with the military dictatorship they postured to dislike. We knew this already when Bill Clinton himself, during
his trip to South Africa in 1997, was reported by the NY Times as welcoming Abacha's plan to convert himself into a
Museveni-like civilian dictator. Thanks a lot, Bubba!

While resisting Pickering's threats, Abiola collapsed and died literally at Pickering's feet -- shortly after Rice had
served tea. Poisoning was not proved, but that was a red herring to the plain fact that our government was muscling the
president elect in the interest of the gang of thugs called the Nigerian military. Abiola's daughter Hafsat has said that she
found most disgusting the kabuki theater of Pickering trying to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to her dying
dad -- talk about the "kiss of death"!

Abiola's elimination conveniently cleared the way for the U.S. favored candidate, General Obasanjo. (a friend of
Jimmy Carter) to be installed in a fake election in 1999, and ever since then, Nigeria has continued down the path of
corruption, authoritarianism and mass misery, during the highest oil price in history. General Obasanjo. himself retired
int o disgrace last year after handpicking his successor, another corrupt failure. Nigeria's agony has no end in sight.
I interpret Rice's presence at Abio.la's snuff scene as her mafia-style induction into the U.S. power elite, under the
watchful eye of Pickering, a notorious heavy who had previously served as our ambassador to Nigeria, the Soviet Union
and coincidentally enough the U.N.

>From her silence, Susan Rice saw nothing wrong with threatening the elected president of Nigeria in jail, and she has
never expressed the slightest remorse at the tragic consequences -- in other words, she is now a made member and a
blooded soldier in the mob. The people of Somalia, Sudan, Congo and Zimbabwe are in for a rough ride, and so is the
hope for improved U.S. reputation in Africa.

Please contact me to obtain documentary support for any of the statements in this letter. In fairness please also feel free
to share this letter with Dr. Rice -- my googling skills are insufficient to locate her email address -- in case she wishes to
present a specific defense.

Sincerely,
Victor Manfredi
Research fellow
African Studies Center
Boston University
manfredi@bu.edu



Source: Ocnus.net 2008