Almost 20 years after he first crossed paths with the Nigerian Senate over bribery allegations from two senators, and allegations of insubordination, among others, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, immediate-past Kaduna State Governor again appeared before the Senate albeit to raise more controversy.

El-Rufai caused a national furore in 2004 when he, in a newspaper interview, accused two principal officers of the Senate, Sen. Ibrahim Mantu now deceased, and Sen. Jonathan Zwingina, who were then Deputy President of the Senate and Deputy Majority Leader respectively, of demanding N54 million bribe to enable them quash opposition to his ministerial nomination.

The N54m it was alleged was to be shared among the 109 senators at N500,000 each.

Despite pressures on him to deny the claim, el-Rufai stood his ground and remained almost a permanent tar on the two senators who were disowned by their colleagues over the allegation.

The relationship between el-Rufai who was then the Minister of the FCT and the Senate worsened during mass demolitions in the FCT authorised by the Minister. 

The Senate constituted a committee to investigate the demolitions which indicted him, but el-Rufai stood his ground backed by President Olusegun Obasanjo, leading to a stalemate. 

In between, the Senate also set up a number of probes on the activities of el-Rufai and indicted him on several counts, including the recruitment of Hadiza Bala Usman, among others, as one of his consultants.

20 years after, el-Rufai returned to the Senate Tuesday, after a tour of duty as two-term governor of Kaduna State and was received with a mixed reactions.

While he was hailed by all the three Kaduna senators and by several other senators, including former governors Abdulazziz Yari (APC Zamfara) and Danjuma Goje (APC Gombe), Sen. Sunday Karami (Kogi-West), however, brought out a petition against him.

Sen. Karami said the petition had to do with a matter of national security which he wanted the senate to address. The petition raised a little uproar as several senators rose against the move and rose to the nominee’s defence.

Even an attempt by el-Rufai to touch on the issue was suppressed by the president of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio.

Ruling on the issue, Akpabio said that the Senate Chambers would not be used as forum to try anybody and that he was in receipt of petitions against other nominees. 

He then said that the petition against el-Rufai would be tried during the confirmation hearing, during their closed-door session.

Upon that, el-Rufai took a bow and unlike his past appearance, with no suggestion of a bribe demand.