By joshua Ajaokuta Federal Constituency: Beyond Tradition, By Performance, Sea’s Second Term Now A Question Of Continuity, Not Contest
By Abu Micheal
In politics, as in football, the mantra is simple: “You don’t change a winning team.” For Ajaokuta Federal Constituency, that saying is no longer metaphor. It is now a record.
The conversation around 2027 is therefore not about the face of Hon. Sanni Egidi Abdulraheem, popularly called SEA. It is about the distance between where Ajaokuta was before 2023, and where it stands today three years into his first term.
Nigerian politics often treats a first term as “rehearsal” and a second as the real battle. SEA has made that tradition look outdated. Long before his 2023 election to the House of Representatives on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, he had already built a constituency portfolio: roads, boreholes, scholarships, women’s start-up capital, small business support, and school fees paid quietly for youths.
That “unsung record” became the engine of his victory. Three years later, the talk of a second term sounds less like ambition and more like consensus on the streets of Ganaja, Adankolo, and across the five LGAs of the federal constituency.
Constituents say SEA’s open-door policy has erased the geography between them and power. “Abuja to Lokoja now feels like Ganaja to Adankolo,” one youth leader noted, because the lawmaker is home with his people, often. He runs a functional constituency office, holds town halls, and does post-session briefings — explaining bills, votes, and next steps in plain language to market women, students, and professionals.
His principle is clear: representation means the people’s voice, not a godfather’s orders. Youths, women, minorities and rural communities sit at that table, not just party loyalists.
On the floor of the House, SEA has earned a reputation for diligence. Colleagues say he reads bills, proposes amendments, spots bad legislation, and uses committee hearings and motions to hold the executive accountable. He does not vote by reflex. He checks data, impact, and unintended consequences. He also builds cross-party consensus to get Ajaokuta’s interests into national policy. Integrity anchors it. Asset declarations, explanations of constituency project spending, and consistent messaging in Lokoja and in Abuja have made smear campaigns, supporters argue, fail to stick to a record they call “unblemished.”
SEA’s constituency development model starts with people. He prioritizes education, health, skills, and jobs over one-off handouts. His record includes CBT centres equipped with computers for digital learning, and a project-tracking approach to ensure budget-captured constituency projects are actually executed and functional.
He also leverages his office to attract MDAs, NGOs, and private investment to Ajaokuta. The result, constituents say, is a visible tilt in federal infrastructure and attention toward the constituency in the last few years — a trend they credit to his closeness to the powers that be in Kogi and at the centre, under President Bola Tinubu and Governor Usman Ododo.
During floods, insecurity, or communal tensions, SEA has functioned as a Coordinator, not an absentee. He works with LGA chairs, Assembly members, and Senators on big projects, but has shown the courage to challenge the executive when laws are broken or citizens are hurting, even when it is unpopular. He frames power as “loaned by the people.” That humility translates to round-the-clock work and a long view: pushing laws that will outlive his tenure because, as he puts it, another term will be for “consolidation.”
After a hard-fought election and full electoral litigation, the courts at all levels validated the constituents’ choice. In office, he has turned federal presence into visible projects and federal attention into tangible relief — a leap many say past representations could not achieve.
Ajaokuta has a tradition of returning its lawmakers. In SEA’s case, analysts say the case goes beyond tradition. The argument is performance. Roads, classrooms, scholarships, start-ups, and access — built before and after election — have become his real title. “The people of Ajaokuta have come to accept him as what the federal constituency needs beyond 2027,” a political analyst in the district said.
“For them, a good lawmaker passes good laws, stops bad ones, delivers real dividends to the constituency, and leaves the institution stronger than he met it.”
With APC primaries concluded and the political field set, the sentiment in the federal constituency appears to be settling around one idea: all options considered, continuity with SEA is about consolidating gains already made. For Ajaokuta, the question is no longer if to return him. It is why not continue with a winning team.