By joshua 
SENATOR KARIMI SUNDAY STEVE: A SCORE CARD OF CONSISTENT QUALITY REPRESENTATION — PART 4
‘A LEGACY IN THE MAKING FOR KOGI WEST’
In public service, longevity without impact is noise. But when a representative stays long enough and delivers consistently, the work begins to look like a legacy. That is the space Senator Sunday Steve Karimi now occupies in Kogi West.
From Egbe where he was born, to Kabba and Kogi LGA where he now holds court as Senator, his story has been one of engineering precision meeting political empathy. An Engineer by training, a two-term House of Representatives member between 2011 and 2019, and now the first man from Yagba to sit in the Senate since 1999, he has spent over a decade turning campaign promises into boreholes, classrooms, transformers, and opportunities.
As we round off this four-part scorecard, the focus shifts to sustainability. What happens after the commissioning? Who benefits five years down the line? And how is Senator Karimi ensuring that what he started does not die with his tenure?
One of the criticisms of Nigerian politics is that projects are tied to personalities. Senator Karimi has tried to break that cycle by building structures that outlive him. The Yagba People Empowerment Initiative, incorporated with the Corporate Affairs Commission in 2014, is a case in point. With trustees drawn from respected elders across Yagba, the initiative was seeded with N34 million of his personal funds and about N100 million raised from friends and stakeholders. It was not shared at a rally. It was domiciled in a registered account and disbursed to micro and small business owners after screening and training.
That same model is now running across Kogi West through the annual Women Cooperative Support Program. In 2024, N100 million was disbursed to 50 cooperatives, N2 million each. The money revolves. A woman in Ogidi uses it to buy garri in bulk, sells, returns the capital, and another woman takes her turn. In Iyara, another group used it to buy grinding machines and now runs a milling service. The Senator’s office monitors repayment, not to recover money, but to ensure the cycle continues.
The annual bursary scheme is also being institutionalized. What started as N100,000 for 1,000 Kogi West students in 2024 has become a statewide program with the Tinubu Support Group, reaching 3,000 students with N300 million. The selection is ward-based to ensure fairness, and the payment goes directly to students’ accounts. Parents in Kabba, Isanlu and Lokoja now plan around it. That is how you build trust.
Some projects are too big for constituency funds. They require federal attention and legislative push. That is where Senator Karimi has leveraged his position in the 10th Senate.
The Federal University of Agriculture, Kabba* and the Federal University of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Egbe bills are his signature legislative projects. If assented to, Kabba will become a hub for agronomy, veterinary science and agribusiness research, while Egbe will train doctors, nurses and public health professionals for the entire North Central. Both towns will see hostels, staff quarters, markets and transport systems spring up around them. That is the kind of economic transformation that lasts beyond one administration.
The Government Science Secondary School, Kotonkarfe upgrade, worth over N2.5 billion, is another big-ticket item. It is being completely remodeled with modern laboratories, ICT centers, and boarding facilities. The goal is to produce the next generation of Kogi scientists and engineers right at home. Classroom blocks in St. Barnabas Kabba, Odo-Ape, Iluke-Bunu and Igbaruku have already been delivered and are in use. The National Open University Study Centre will serve civil servants and traders who cannot attend conventional universities.
Ask any constituent what they remember most and the answer is usually water and light. In his first year in the Senate, Senator Karimi sank over 140 solar-powered motorized boreholes across Kogi West. In Lokoja, they are in Ward A behind Moremi Restaurant, in Marine Quarters, in New Layout and in Cantonment. In Lokoja II, they are in Kakanda, Shelvun, Yelwafu, Amiza, Mekugi, Jamata, Felele and Obajana. In Kabba-Bunu, over 15 were sited in Ayetoro, Odokoro-Gbede, Iyara, Ogidi, Iffe and Iyamoye. Ijumu, Yagba East and Yagba West have their fair share too.
These are not hand pumps that break after six months. They are solar-powered, with UPVC tanks and multiple fetching points. Many are upgrades of boreholes he first did as a House member in 2014, now converted to solar because he went back to check.
On power, the distribution of 500KVA and 300KVA transformers has been strategic. Sarkin Noma in Lokoja, Felele Phase 3, Kabba, Iyara in Ijumu, Ponyan in Yagba East, Odo-Ere and Egbe in Yagba West, Isanlu in Yagba East, and Mopa in Mopa-Amuro all received new transformers. This was followed by *over 200 solar street lights across the seven LGAs. In Yagba West, 44 lights are in Igaruku, Ogbe and Ejiba. Yagba East has 80 in Isanlu and Ejuku. Kabba-Bunu has 81. Ijumu has 30. Kogi LGA has 50. The impact is immediate: traders stay open later, students read at night, and crime drops.
The Army Forward Operating Base in Egbe remains one of his proudest interventions. It sits on the Kogi-Kwara border, an 85-bed facility with offices, a commander’s house, messes, an armory and a watchtower, powered by solar and standby generators. Since it became operational, kidnapping along that corridor has reduced. Farmers now go to their farms with less fear.
Connectivity is also improving. The Pakuta Bridge project is underway to link Ijumu, Bunu and Lokoja. When completed, it will cut travel time and save farmers millions in lost produce. He has also been consistent in the Senate on road matters, moving motions on the Obajana-Kabba-Isanlu-Egbe-Omu Aran road and calling for a dedicated road fund so projects do not stall with every budget cycle.
Governance is not only about concrete. It is about compassion. Every year, Senator Karimi distributes about one trailer of rice per local government during Christmas, Ramadan, Lent, Sallah and Easter. He has extended this to Kogi East and Central in the name of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is not a stunt. For many families, it is the difference between a lean holiday and a dignified one.
When the Kupa boat mishap happened, he was one of the first to donate. During township days in Egbe, Isanlu, Iyamoye and others, he supports community associations. These gestures build goodwill that politics alone cannot buy.
He has also facilitated federal employment for constituents in NASS Commission, NILS, FIRS, RMAFC, FCSC, NIWA, Federal Fire Service and the Nigeria Police. For a family in Odo-Ape or Ogidi, one federal job changes the trajectory of that household.
In the 10th Senate, his legislative footprint is growing. He has sponsored the Dishonored Cheques Bill, CBN Amendment Bill, ICPC Amendment Bill, and Electoral Act Amendment Bill. He has pushed constitutional alterations on State Police, Local Government Autonomy, and on restricting presiding officers to ranking members to ensure experience in leadership.
He has also sponsored bills to establish the National E-Gaming Commission, National Sports Development Fund, and to amend the Federal Highways Act. His motions have interrogated refinery turnaround maintenance, oil theft, the naira redesign, and subsidy palliatives. He co-sponsored a motion condemning violence in Edo and Ondo elections and calling for justice for Inspector Akor Onu.
What colleagues note about him is preparation. He comes to the chamber with facts, and he speaks for Kogi West without grandstanding.
What makes this representation different is feedback. His team does not just commission and disappear. They go back. When a borehole in Takete-Ide developed a fault, it was repaired. When a transformer in Felele overloaded, it was upgraded. When students complained that bursary forms were cumbersome, the process was simplified.
That is why town halls in Kabba, Mopa and Isanlu are usually full. People come because they know they will be heard. Elder Ben Olowo Dollar in Kabba-Bunu describes him as “a servant who listens.” Chief Adegbega, representing the Obaro of Kabba, says the Senator has brought dignity back to representation. Women leaders like Fehinti Dada appreciate the direct support to women, and youth leaders say the motorcycles and grants have kept many from crime.
Senator Karimi has been deliberate about aligning with the center. Every major intervention is tied to President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. The rice, the bursaries, the university bills, all are framed as part of a national project. That alignment has helped Kogi West get attention from federal ministries and agencies.
It has also strengthened the APC in the district. Party leaders say that with a Senator who delivers, campaigning in 2027 will be easier. The message will not be promises. It will be evidence.
There is still work to do. The Pakuta Bridge must be completed. The two university bills must be passed. More ICT and skills centers are needed. The Senator has indicated that the next phase will focus on technology and vocational training. Partnerships are being explored with NITDA and ITF to bring digital skills to youth in Lokoja, Kabba and Isanlu.
He also wants to do more in healthcare. The cottage clinic in Kakanda is a start, but he is pushing for more primary health centers to be upgraded and equipped across the district.
When you put all the parts together, the picture is clear. From 2011 to 2015, Senator Karimi focused on water, light and empowerment in Yagba. From 2015 to 2019, he scaled it and added education and lawmaking. Since 2023 in the Senate, he has taken that template and applied it across Kogi West, while adding big-ticket federal projects and national legislation.
He was born in Egbe, but he works for all of Kogi West. He is an Engineer, but he speaks the language of the market woman and the student. He is a politician, but he measures himself by projects, not press releases.
That is why the phrase “equal opportunity quality representation” has stayed with him. It is not a slogan. It is a practice.
As Kogi West looks toward 2027, constituents are not debating whether he has performed. They are debating how to sustain the momentum. For them, Senator Sunday Steve Karimi has set a standard.
Boreholes that still run. Schools that now have roofs. Lights that stay on. Students who stay in school. Businesses that have capital. Communities that feel safe.
In Nigerian politics, that is rare. In Kogi West, that is now the expectation.
And that, more than anything, is the legacy Senator Karimi Sunday Steve is building — one project, one ward, one life at a time.