As Herman Hembe bids farewell to the Lower Chamber

Finally, the Supreme Court has finally put an end to the sojourn of Honourable Herman Hembe in the Federal House of Representatives. Aside this, he was also ordered to “return all salaries and benefits collected while in office within 90 days. Hembe graduated from Benue State University, Makurdi in 2005 and being one of the favourite of his constituents, he was eventually elected to represent Vandikwa/Konshisha Federal Constituency of Benue State in 2007.
Recalling his exploits during his legislative exploits since 2007 to date, Hembe, a legal practitioner, who is rated to be one of the youngest parliamentarians at the federal level, is presently 41 years. According to those familiar with his political career, he came to the political landscape in his home state, after finishing his National Youth Service Corps.
Known to be a favourite of the current leadership of the House, he was allotted the chairman, House Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and has been rated to be more controversial over the past few years. I was taken aback with the streams of commentaries trailing the Supreme Court ruling via the twitter, barely a second after the pronouncement was made. Some of them include: “Yep, he called Jibrin “Abdul mumu ni”; “LMAO! Please what’s that his handle again? I need to  ‘congratulate’ him on his retirement from HOR”; “Lmao! Is this not the guy talking trash during Dogara/Jibril saga?”; “Yes o. He’s the one. Karma comes quickly and fast this days”; “LOL. Yep, he called Jibrin “Abdul mumu ni”; “He was also at the fore of the Arunma Oteh (SEC) vs House saga”; “That wasn’t the last we heard of him. Pius Anyim also alleged d guy was on his case as well, just recently”; “While the Agatu killings lasted, not one comment from him, his constituency is just next door. Dude was just harassing PDP pple for pay,” among others trailed the Supreme Court ruling of Friday.
Despite all the criticism trailing his days as a federal lawmaker, he would be remembered for sponsoring one of the legislative frameworks on ‘FCT Hotel Occupancy, Entertainment, Restaurant and Consumption Tax Bill, 2017 (HB. 937)’; the investigate hearing into the Centenary City and controversial probe of Security Exchange Commission (SEC) under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. He was not spared from the budget padding allegation fired by the suspended Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin, a case which was recently revisited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). No doubt, he too will be required to defend his involvement in the N284 billion scam. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court ruling cannot be appealed by Hembe. But he can still find his way back into the political landscape by 2019 all things being equal. On this note, I wish him well in the future ambition.
Meanwhile, I also feel obliged to reflect on some of the bills passed by the Lower Chamber through second reading before embarking on the Sallah recess penultimate week, especially, the bill and Memorandum on legal and regulatory framework, institutions and regulatory authorities for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry, to establish guidelines for the operation of the upstream and downstream sectors and for purposes connected with the same, was sponsored by Daniel Reyenieju.
Similarly, the House passed the bill for an Act for legislative framework relating to petroleum producing host community’s participation, cost and benefit sharing among government, petroleum exploration companies and petroleum Host Communities and mater’s connected thereto’, sponsored by Victor Nwokolo, Joseph Akinlaja and Agbedi Frederick, which was consolidated with the PIGB passed by the Senate through third reading. The bill for an Act to provide for the Governance and Institutional Framework for the Petroleum Industry and to establish a fiscal framework that encourages further investment in the petroleum industry whilst increasing accruable revenues to the Federal Government of Nigeria and for other related matters, which was sponsored by Victor Nwokolo and 13 other lawmakers.
I cannot but mention that the House also passed through third reading an all important bill which seeks to establish the National Institute for cancer research and treatment and for connected purposes. Though details of the legislation are yet to be made public in the House, but I’m making frantic efforts are being made to get it into public domain possibly by this week by God’s grace. The difficulty in getting the report out was due to bureaucratic bottlenecks within the system, but it’s surely surmountable. But my reservation about the bill is that, the House should have prioritise the consideration of the three bills on the Cancer treatments which I considered to be more detailed and hold so much potentials to address the life-threatening challenges posed by the deadly ailment ravaging the world especially developing countries including Nigeria.
Another bill transmitted by the Senate to the House which was considered at first reading was the Mutual Assistance in criminal matter bill, 2017. Going by the unanimous agreement among the leadership of the two Chambers, such bills will be given accelerated consideration or call it concurrence like that of the Cancer bill.
Till next week, when the House will resume for the third legislative year in the 8th session, I hope the fresh allegation bothering on the padding or insertion of the N7.441 trillion will not create unprecedented disaffection between the Legislature and Executive.

 

KEHINDE AKINTOLA