By joshua 
Why You Don’t Change a Winning Team – The Case for Returning Senator Sunday Karimi to the Senate
By Abu Micheal.
The beauty of democracy is that the people decide. At every election cycle, the electorate holds the power to affirm what is working or opt for change.
In Kogi West Senatorial District, 2027 presents that same choice. But when you look closely at the scoreboard, the question is no longer if Senator Sunday Karimi deserves another term. It’s what more can he do if we let him finish what he started.
Kogi West has seen many representatives since the return of democracy. But there is no gainsaying that under Senator Karimi, the bar of representation has been raised.
As a ranking senator and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Services, he has turned access, influence, and federal presence into visible projects across the district.
For years, students in Kogi West traveled long distances and paid exorbitant fees to write JAMB and WAEC in overcrowded centres. That is changing. Just recently, over 1,200 candidates sat for the 2026 JAMB at the 288-seater CBT centre in Titcombe College, Egbe, facilitated by Senator Karimi in partnership with the Titcombe College Old Students Association.
But he didn’t stop there. In the 2026 appropriation, he has secured three more CBT centres for 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. Each centre will have 275 laptops, internet, CCTV, solar power, generators, and toilets built to JAMB standards. A fourth centre at ECWA Secondary School, Mopa, is being funded personally by him.
This is what continuity delivers: from one CBT centre to four, ensuring no child in Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu, Lokoja/Kotonkarfe, or Yagba is left behind when 2027 exams come.
He has matched education with infrastructure.
Work has resumed on the Iluhagba–Mopa–Isanlu–Egbe federal road, with CGC mobilized to site. N3 billion was captured in the 2025 budget, and an additional N6 billion was secured through his engagement with the Minister of Works. Senator Karimi has commended President Bola Tinubu and Minister David Umahi for making the Renewed Hope Agenda real in Kogi West.
The Kabba–Egbe–Ilorin road and Pakuta bridge projects are also improving connectivity, opening markets and reducing travel time for farmers and traders.
He has invested in people, not just projects.
Over 500 traders in Lokoja received business support. Fifty women cooperatives accessed N100 million in funding. A N400 million scholarship scheme is supporting 4,000 students. Nursing education got an N11 million boost. Over 150 boreholes now provide clean water across the district. A military base in Egbe has strengthened regional security.
“Sen. Karimi’s focus on enhancing well-being through initiatives is commendable,” says Rukayat Suleiman, President of Unique Ladies Association Lokoja. “His efforts have improved our lives.”
This is why continuity matters. Politics is about who gets what, when, and how. In the Senate, ranking is currency. A second-term senator sits on more influential committees, commands more weight, and attracts bigger federal projects. For Kogi West, returning Senator Karimi means staying a ranking constituency, not starting over with a first-timer who has to learn the ropes while opportunities pass us by.
Kogi West is predominantly APC, with a rooted party structure and leaders like Engr. Bashiru Gegu in Kogi LGA who have kept the area solid for the party. Lokoja’s political machinery has always delivered wide margins. In Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu, the 80-20 APC advantage is well established. But structures without results are empty.
Senator Karimi has given that structure substance. He is accessible, responsive, and has built a grassroots network that even his critics acknowledge. His advocacy for “Kogi West for Governor” shows he is not just thinking about the Senate. He is thinking about the district’s future at every level.
The appeal is simple: don’t disrupt momentum.
If the first term was about planting seeds and laying foundations, the second term is about the harvest. More CBT centres approved for JAMB and WAEC. More federal roads completed. More boreholes, scholarships, and empowerment reaching the last mile. More constituents able to point to a project and say, “This reached me.”
Changing a winning team for the sake of change is a gamble Kogi West cannot afford. The senator has proven he can convert budgets into laptops, roads, scholarships, and water. He has proven he can be reached. He has proven he can fight for the district in Abuja and bring results home.
As we head to 2027, let the choice be clear. It is not about change for change’s sake. It is about continuity for sustainable development.
Kogi West, the engineer of access is still building. Let’s give Sen. Sunday Karimi, of the APC another term to finish the job already started and build on new ones that they people have put before him. He obviously knows the way, let him lead.