With the abrupt end to the membership of Herman Hembe in the House of Representatives, EMEKA ALEX DURU, takes a look at controversies that trailed his days as a lawmaker.
Until the Supreme Court put a halt to his largely fleeting flight to stardom on Friday, June 23, Herman Hembe, who represented Vandikwa/ Konshisha Federal Constituency, Benue State, in the House of Representatives, was almost appropriating for himself, an ascription of a cat with nine lives.
On several occasions before his sudden fall, Hembe had virtually attracted controversies that almost consumed him. Some bordered on financial impropriety especially in his conduct with non-members of the House. On such occasions when even his staunchest supporters had feared that he would be drowned in the confusion, Hembe had managed to swim out of the flood, returning subsequently, with more nauseating carriage.
But his talisman seems to have failed him this time around. And he is currently nursing his pains, lonely and in piteous mood.
Hembe eventually came crashing, when the Apex Court, sitting in Abuja declared his seat vacant and ruled that Mrs. Dorathy Mato who won the All Progressives Congress (APC) party ticket for the constituency, is the rightful candidate. The Court, further ordered him to return all salaries and benefits collected while in office within 90 days.
Not even his critics had expected the sudden and hard fall. His characteristic arrogant carriage, up till last week, also did not give impressions of somebody in a tight corner.
Our reporter in fact, gathered that by Thursday, a day before the Supreme Court judgement, Hembe’s henchmen were already all over town, in anticipation of a favourable outing, in fact, slating the weekend for a victory party.
A former House member, who worked closely with the fallen lawmaker in the last National Assembly, simply described him as being outlandish and lacking in sobriety. He said, “Knowing Herman (Hembe), he would have made elaborate arrangements at painting the City (Abuja) red after the court session. He is not one given to being sober no matter the issue at stake. He can be outlandish in carriage and engagements”.
Only time would determine how Hembe would manage his current situation. A former activist in his student years at Benue State University where he was elected Director of Publicity of the Students Union Government, in addition to other positions at various times, he did not seem to know where to draw the line between juvenile activism and politics at macro level.
The last in his rancorous undertakings was the altercations he had with suspended Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmunin Jibrin, over roles they allegedly played in the 2016 budget padding saga.
Obviously acting the proverbial Man Friday for the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, who was then at daggers-drawn with Jibrin, Hembe literally went personal, threatening the suspended committee chairman of having a day with law enforcement agencies for squealing on the oddities that trailed the budget exercise.
In one of his numerous exchanges with Jibrin, Hembe had thundered, “I wish to remind Jibrin that there is no hiding place for him. He fled to UK after getting hint that anti-graft agencies in Nigeria were investigating him in order to avoid arrest and prosecution.
“Now, having realised that even in the UK, the National Crime Agency and the Financial Intelligence Unit have already profiled him and may soon open a case against him, he quietly sneaked back to Nigeria.
“His days of freedom are numbered and sooner than later, he will face the full wrath of the law”.
Jibrin however riposted that he did not run away from London but only returned to Nigeria to furnish anti-graft agencies with additional information they needed from him on the petition he filed against the House leadership.
With Jibrin being suspended by the House for 182 legislatives days, Hembe, obviously had a huge laugh. But with the current state of affairs, the laughter by the former Benue legislator, may have been embarked upon too early. This is because while Jibrin may still return to the lawmaking House, it is over for Hembe, curiously in questionable circumstance.
But this would not be the first time he would be in the eye of the storm. A couple of months ago, he had crossed swords with erstwhile Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, in his capacity as Federal Capital Territory Committee (FCT) committee chairman, over the handling of the Abuja Centenary City Project.
Anyim had accused Hembe of planning to use the investigative hearing into the Project to settle scores with him over a lingering issue between them. He pointedly asked Hembe to disqualify himself from heading the investigative hearing so as to guarantee fairness.
According to the former SGF, Hembe had held it against him for not sacking former Director-General of Security and Exchange Commission, Arunma Oteh, when she accused him (Hembe) of demanding bribe from her in the last administration.
“Mr. Chairman, I would not allow you to use the National Assembly platform to pursue this personal vendetta. It’s not acceptable and I will not submit to it because it offends the rule of fair hearing and all I’m asking for is fair hearing”, Anyim had insisted.
Hembe insisted on heading the investigation. But that has now, become a mirage.
Before then, he had taken on Oteh in an engagement that almost ruined his political career.
Precisely, on March 14, 2012, Hembe, who was then Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market, was involved in a face-off with Oteh, who, in a live telecast session, accused him of lacking in integrity to preside over the public hearing on the activities of the commission.
Her reason was that Hembe had, before the commencement of the probe, requested for the sum of N39 million from the Commission to fund the investigation.
Oteh also alleged that a week to the commencement of the public hearing Hembe had returned to the Commission, this time, requesting N5million, since the earlier request was not obliged because the amount was considered high.
She added that she also turned down the new request, which she believed may have infuriated members of the committee, and made them hostile to her and her commission.
She equally alleged that Hembe had on an earlier date collected some money from SEC and a Business Class Ticket to travel to the Dominican Republic for a Conference, which he allegedly failed to attend, and yet did not retire the money. She therefore questioned his credibility to preside over the probe.
“Mr. Chairman, I question your credibility to preside over this probe. On 20th October last year (2011), you were given a cheque to travel to Dominican Republic to attend a Conference; you need to tell Nigerians whether you attended the Conference, yet you did not return the cheque” she alleged.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) took up the issue and arraigned Hembe over allegations of breach of public trust, diversion of public funds and stealing. Though he was eventually acquitted by the courts, the damage done on the reputation of the ex-lawmaker was yet to be repaired when the Supreme Court threw him out of the green chambers.
With his eventual disgrace at the court, Hembe may have to return to the basics. Incidentally, though being in the House since 2007, he has not particularly been a politician that can strictly be described as his own man.
TheNiche for instance learnt that while he seemed to soar, the former legislator was actually riding on the goodwill of his late father, Professor Godwin Nyor Hembe, a Political Science scholar at the Benue State University, Makurdi.
Hembe’s father, who was a member of the 1993 National Constitutional Conference Abuja in 1993, had reportedly made two unsuccessful attempts at election in Benue. But on account of his goodwill, leaders of his Konshisha constituency, including Senator Barnabas Gemade, had rallied round to compensate the family in throwing up Herman.
In a way therefore, Hembe could pass for the late Professor Chinua Achebe’s allegory, in Things Fall Apart, of those whose palm kernels were crushed for them by the benevolent spirit and hence should be grateful to the gods. But not so for the fallen lawmaker. If anything, he chose the role of the classical Nza the bird, which after a sumptuous meal, challenged its god for wrestling duel.
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By the last count for instance, the relationship between Hembe and Gemade, as well as others who propped him to early light, was, at best, lukewarm.
The biography of Hembe, indicated that he was born in Zaria, Kaduna State on June 22, 1975. He attended Mount Saint Gabriel’s Secondary School Makurdi for his Senior School Certificate in 1992.
He thereafter, proceeded to the Benue State University, Makurdi where he read Law. He graduated in 2001 and proceeded to the Nigeria Law School, Lagos where he obtained Barrister at Law (BL) Certificate in 2003.
Hembe did his one-year youth service in Ogun State.
