By joshua KARIMI ROUNDS OFF WEST-WIDE TOWN HALL WITH CALL FOR UNITY, DELIVERS VERDICT: “KOGI WEST HAS NEVER HAD IT THIS GOOD”
When Senator Sunday Karimi, the voice of Kogi West in the 10th Senate, decided to take governance back to the people, he did not settle for press releases or closed-door meetings. He chose the market square, the party secretariat, and the town hall. And last week in Lokoja, at the grand finale held at the K-Galaxy Event Centre for Lokoja-Koton Karfe Federal Constituency, that decision came full circle with drums, applause, and a renewed vow from party faithful to deliver an even bigger victory for the All Progressives Congress in 2027.
It all began weeks earlier in Isanlu, headquarters of Yagba Federal Constituency. Council chairmen, members of the State House of Assembly, party executives and elders filed in one after the other to take the microphone. The message was unanimous. The timing was divine. For a district that has often been accused of fragmentation, here was a senator pulling everyone to one table, not to campaign for himself alone, but to reposition the district within the national conversation. From Yagba the train moved to Kabba, and then to Lokoja, and at each stop the crowd grew, the stories multiplied, and the verdict became clearer: Senator Karimi enjoys an organic following that cuts across clans, wards and generations.
The idea for the tour, those present recalled, was birthed at an earlier stakeholders’ meeting in Lokoja with representatives of Kogi West, council chairmen from across the West, and other critical leaders. At that meeting, it was agreed that the moment demanded more than rhetoric. It demanded mobilization. With 2027 on the horizon and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda entering a defining phase, Kogi West could not afford to be spectators. The town hall was therefore designed with two goals: to unite APC members ahead of the next general election, and to galvanize support for a presidential re-election that, according to the Senator, must surpass even the impressive 2023 showing.
Standing before a packed hall in Lokoja, Senator Karimi did not mince words. He said the district had never had it this good since the return of democracy in 1999, and that the evidence was not in slogans but in projects that people could touch and name. He told the gathering that his own scorecard in representation remains a record in the history of Kogi West, not because he says so, but because the classrooms, health centres, roads, water projects, empowerment kits and federal appointments traceable to his office are verifiable in every local government. He promised to do even more if given another mandate, but quickly shifted focus from himself to the bigger picture, the presidency.
According to him, President Tinubu came into office at a time when the nation needed difficult decisions to reset the economy. The removal of fuel subsidy, the unification of the exchange rate, investments in infrastructure, student loan schemes, and renewed attention to security and agriculture are already yielding results that Nigerians are beginning to feel. In Kogi State, he noted, the partnership between the federal government and the administration of Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo has translated into better funding flows, improved salary regularity, and ongoing federal road and power interventions that directly benefit Kogi West. For Kogi West in particular, he reeled out federal presence in roads, education support, agricultural inputs under various federal programs, and political appointments that have given sons and daughters of Okunland a seat at the national table again.
That, he argued, is why the return of President Tinubu in 2027 is not a matter of sentiment but of strategy. “We cannot start what we cannot finish,” he told the crowd. “Kogi West still stands to benefit more. The Renewed Hope Agenda is a marathon, and we are only in the early laps. If we stay united and deliver overwhelmingly, the dividends will be greater than what we saw in 2023.”
It was a message that resonated. In Yagba, party leaders commended the Senator for demystifying representation and bringing it to the grassroots. In Kabba, elders spoke of how long it had been since a senator sat with them to account and to listen. And in Lokoja, the grand finale felt more like a homecoming. The hall was filled with women groups, youth leaders, artisans, and APC faithful who took turns to pledge their loyalty not just to the party, but to the vision of a united Kogi West speaking with one voice.
Senator Karimi used the better part of the engagements to rally that unity. He reminded members that political differences within the APC must not become divisions, because the real contest is for development and for relevance at the centre. He urged council chairmen to return to their wards and translate the town hall energy into voter education, membership drive, and continuous engagement. He told the youth that the Tinubu administration’s focus on skills, digital jobs and credit access was designed for them, and that Kogi West must position its young people to take full advantage.
By the time the Lokoja meeting ended, what was clear was this: the Senator has turned representation into a conversation, and that conversation is yielding results. His accomplishments, from constituency interventions to legislative advocacy, have set a new benchmark in the district, a watershed that even his critics acknowledge. But beyond projects, he has succeeded in giving Kogi West a renewed sense of belonging in national politics.
As the crowd filed out of K-Galaxy, the chants were no longer just about Karimi. They were about Tinubu, about APC, and about 2027. The Senator’s charge was simple and direct: go back to your communities, stay united, and deliver a victory that will make Kogi West the reference point for performance and loyalty. For a district that has waited long to be heard, that message landed well. The town hall is over. The work of mobilization, he said, has only just begun.