By joshua 
2027 Kogi West Senatorial Election: 7 LGAS, One Ambition, Karimi Wins Hearts
By Our Reporter
Ahead of the 2027 Kogi West Senatorial District election, one conversation dominates every nook and cranny of the district, from Lokoja to Kogi, from Kabba-Bunu to Ijumu, from Yagba East to Yagba West and down to Mopamuro. It is not about who will contest, but about how to ensure that Senator Sunday Steve Karimi returns.
Across the seven local government areas, the verdict is loud, clear and sacrosanct. Kogi West has found a Senator who made the people his priority from the blast of his mandate, and the people have resolved to make his return their priority.
This groundswell is not manufactured. It is earned. Senator Karimi did not come to the Senate to make noise, he came to work, and the evidence of that work is visible in every ward.
In Koton-Karfe, where a legacy school had rotted into decay, Senator Karimi invested over N1.48 billion through the Federal Government to totally reconstruct Government Science Secondary School, turning it into a model institution. And then came the icing that made tongues wag across Kogi West. The recent handover of the N1.5 billion Government Science Secondary School, Koton-Karfe on September 18, 2026 was not just a commissioning, it was a revelation. A school rebuilt to world-class standard, fully equipped, solar-powered and delivered without noise.
As the crowd walked through the magnificent classrooms, laboratories and dormitories, the question on every lip was the same: What manner of man is Senator Karimi? As one traditional ruler who witnessed the handover declared, “This is not representation, this is transformation. What manner of man will help build a N1.5 billion school from his constituency intervention and hands it over like this? Karimi is a different breed.”
That same commitment lives in Egbe, where he transformed the old library of his alma mater, Titcombe College, into a modern, solar-powered Computer-Based Testing Centre at the cost of over N350m. And beyond buildings, he has kept children in school with a bursary scheme that has become the largest in the history of the district, supporting 1,000 students with N100 million in 2024, reaching 3,000 students with N100,000 each in 2025, and with a fresh N300 million bursary already announced for 2026.
When insecurity threatened to choke Kogi West, when kidnappers took advantage of the porous Kogi-Kwara border, Senator Karimi did what few would do. He put his N750m personal resources on the line and fully funded and equipped a military Forward Operating Base along that corridor, complemented the 96-bed Forward Operating Base in Egbe, donated Hilux patrol vans, provided accommodation and welfare for troops, and facilitated deployment to vulnerable communities in Jege, Odo-Ere, Isanlu and Olle-Bunu.
As one community elder in Yagba West told this reporter, “Karimi did not wait for Abuja, he brought Abuja to us. For the first time in years, our people sleep with both eyes closed.”
That uncommon intervention earned him the national honour as the Most Security-Conscious Senator in Nigeria, but for the people of Kogi West, the real award is the peace that has relatively returned.
Roads that were once death traps are now motorable because he fought for them. He secured N9 billion for the Iluhagba-Mopa-Isanlu-Egbe federal road with contractor CGC already on site, and facilitated the return of contractors to the long-abandoned Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin road, reviving trade and easing movement for farmers and transporters. With his own money, he rebuilt the collapsed Pakuta Bridge in Aiyegunle Gbede, reconnecting communities across three LGAs and opening a gateway into Niger State.
Water, which many communities trekked miles to find, now flows at their doorsteps through his N1.24 billion water intervention that delivered 140 boreholes, 75 new solar-powered ones and 65 rehabilitated, with five industrial boreholes for Lokoja metropolis. Light has also returned. He has provided transformers to all seven LGAs, from Sarki Noma and Mount Patti in Lokoja to Obajana and beyond, and solar streetlights that now illuminate underserved areas, power small businesses and improve night-time security.
His empowerment footprint is equally monumental. Fifty women cooperative groups received N100 million, over 500 women were trained and supported with start-up capital, farmers were supported with fertilizers and seedlings, over N200 million was invested in scholarships and cooperative funds, and over N300 million worth of food and palliatives were distributed during Ramadan and Lent. Youths across Kogi West got federal jobs in paramilitary and government agencies, many getting their first payslips because their Senator made a call. Churches, mosques and socio-cultural groups have all felt his generosity. In Kakanda, a N150 million community hospital he sponsored now stands as hope for the sick.
In the Senate, as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Services, he has sponsored the Central Bank of Nigeria Amendment Bill and over fifteen other bills focused on transparency, anti-corruption and economic inclusion, giving Kogi West a voice that matters nationally.
What the opposition calls politics, the people call continuity. A youth leader in Kabba summed it up this way, “For twelve years, Kabba-Bunu and Ijumu held this seat through Senators Smart Adeyemi and Dino Melaye. Karimi restored balance to the Yagba federal constituency. It is only fair, it is only logical, that we allow him to complete a second term and gain ranking to bring more federal presence.”
That is the true story, not the noise from a tiny minority institution trying to distort the trajectory. The real story is in the streets where a market woman in Kabba says her cooperative is alive because of Karimi, where a student in Kogi LGA says he stayed in school because Karimi paid, where a farmer in Yagba says his produce now gets to market because Karimi fixed the bridge, and where the N1.5 billion GSSS Koton-Karfe now stands as an icing that has left everyone asking, what manner of man is this Senator Karimi?
For Kogi West, 2027 is settled. Seven local governments, one ambition, one man who has won hearts through service. Senator Sunday Karimi beyond 2027 is not just a slogan, it is the people’s mandate waiting to be renewed.