By joshua 
Service, Structure, and Strategy: How Sunday Karimi Has Made Kogi West APC’s Most Solid Bet for 2027
By Abu Micheal
In Kogi West, politics has a rhythm that is hard to miss. It is a district where the All Progressives Congress holds deep roots, a structure built on loyalty and personalities who hold their ground anytime, anyday. From Lokoja to Kabba, Yagba to Mopa, the APC brand is not just on the ballot; it is in the culture.
That structure starts with men like Engr. Bashiru Gegu in Kogi LGA, a hardline APC figure who has for years locked the area against opposition inroads. In Lokoja, the party’s machinery remains a powerful force capable of delivering margins wider than what was seen in 2023. Across Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu, the pattern holds steady at roughly 80-20 in favor of APC, giving the district a comfortable base that makes federal contests predictable before the first vote is counted.
It is within this landscape that Senator Sunday Karimi secured his ticket for a second term. The declaration that Yagba Federal Constituency owns the mandate, remains sacrosanct echoes the 2023 playbook. But this time, the conversation is moving beyond party mechanics to performance.
Karimi’s first term is already being used as a benchmark. Residents across Okunland and the riverine communities of Lokoja and Koton-Karfe say they have not seen this level of representation since Kogi State’s return to democracy. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Services and a ranking senator, he has leveraged his position to bring projects to communities long considered hard to reach.
The most visible is the Iluhagba–Mopa–Isanlu–Egbe federal road. Work has resumed with CGC mobilized to site, moving steadily along the Isanlu–Ejiba axis. The project was revived through N3 billion captured in the 2025 budget and an additional N6 billion secured through talks with the Minister of Works. Karimi credits President Bola Tinubu and Minister David Umahi for backing the project, saying it will improve mobility, commerce, and security under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
But the focus has not been limited to roads. Agricultural support in the form of fertilizers, seedlings, and processing equipment has gone to local farmers. Scholarship schemes and vocational training are shifting the narrative from handouts to skills.
Education is getting equal attention. After facilitating a 288-seater CBT centre at Titcombe College, Egbe, which hosted over 1,200 JAMB candidates recently, Karimi has secured three more centres in the 2026 appropriation. Muslim Community Secondary School, Lokogoma in Lokoja LGA; Government Science School, Iyara in Ijumu LGA; and Okutadudu Comprehensive College, Odo Ere in Yagba West LGA, are being converted into 275-capacity CBT centres complete with laptops, internet, CCTV, solar power, and generating sets to meet JAMB standards.
A fourth centre at ECWA Secondary School, Mopa, is being funded personally by the senator in partnership with the community.
“I’m already in discussion with the contractor for a timely delivery,” Karimi said, noting the goal is to have all four ready for 2027 JAMB and WAEC.
For a district that has long complained of marginalization in education and infrastructure, the impact is immediate. His role in the Senate Services Committee has also placed Kogi West at the heart of National Assembly operations, a strategic advantage that gives the zone access to projects and influence few first-term senators achieve.
In the Senate, ranking is currency. A second-term senator sits on better committees, attracts larger projects, and carries the institutional memory to navigate Abuja’s power corridors. For Kogi West, returning Karimi is a strategic move to remain a ranking constituency.
The upcoming 2027 contest is shaping up as a referendum. If Karimi’s first term was about planting seeds, the second will be about the harvest. The Kogi West Senator has deepened his bond with the masses.
With APC’s rooted structure across Kogi West and a senator whose record is now visible in roads, schools, and farms, the district is positioned to decide whether to sustain a representation that has delivered, or gamble on conformity. For many across the hills of Okunland and the riverbanks of Lokoja, the answer is already clear: development over friction, continuity over disruption.