By Nathaniel Ikyur
From the time she entered into the Benue political space in 2015, Mimi Adzape-Orubibi means different things to many people. She seems to have a large following. I don’t know why but the mention of her name elicits a lot of emotions.
Let me not go into the details of the past but stick to the currency of events.
When she returned to Nigeria a few weeks ago after losing the Senate elections in 2019, she made a storm at the IDP camp on the outskirts of Makurdi, the Benue state capital. From then till date, she has had the greater percentage of political discourse in the state.
From her speech at the IDP camp, there were indications she was on the move out of the All Progressives Congress, APC. She was allegedly slammed with a suspension by the local wing of her party for anti party utterances. Tensions rose by that action. The tempo was short-lived when pictures of her and the APC leader in Benue showed up a few days after on the cyberspace with ‘Follow who know road’ going viral.
It was speculated that the State Working Committee of the party was ready to quash that suspension to give her confidence to stay put.
John Akperashi, a Kwande-born traiditional titled chief issued a 7-Day ultimatum to the APC to withdraw the suspension or risk losing her to the PDP. Now, the rest is history as Chief Mimi Orubibi has formally resigned from the APC to join the PDP on Saturday, August 7th, 2021 at Adikpo.
Now that the dice is cast, we’re awashed with so many stories of Mimi’s alleged irrelevance in Tivland? Really?
For the fact that many are unsettled about Mimi’s latest political moves shows that the lady they claim has no right in her place of birth is more popular than many acclaimed sons of the soil. After all, many of them were beneficiaries when she held forth at the BIRS.
And from all testimonials I’ve heard, Mimi is kind but is not ready to be cowed not to stand up for herself. It’s obvious she’s not ready to accommodate more toxic people smiling with her in the day time but stabbing her at night against her interests. After all, pati ka interests.
