By joshua Sen. Karimi: Truth Travels Fast, Kogi West Cannot Be Distracted
By Oshio Baba.
No amount of distractions, lies, against the man who has come to be seen as the friend of the people of Kogi West will fly. It will die a natural death, dead on arrival. Truth, when it travels fast, does not need a megaphone, it needs a footprint, and in Kogi West today, the footprint of Distinguished Senator Sunday Steve Karimi, Chairman Senate Committee on Services, is on every road, every school, every borehole and every secured village.
To understand why Kogi West stands so firmly behind him, you must trace his trajectory, not just from June 2023 when he was sworn into the 10th Senate, but way back to his days in the House of Representatives where he represented Yagba Federal Constituency. Even then, Karimi was different. He was not a lawmaker who spoke because he expected constituency funds to speak for him. He acted because he saw needs and opportunities to better the lot of his people. That philosophy has followed him from the Green Chamber to the Red Chamber, and it is why today his accomplishments defy quantification. He is best described as a positive reference, a benchmark that since 1999, no one in Kogi West has matched.
Past representation in Kogi West was largely about motions read and allowances shared. Karimi turned it into light that has never been seen before, a light that has illuminated virtually all seven local government areas in his senatorial district, with towns and villages dotted across Lokoja, Kogi, Kabba-Bunu, Ijumu, Mopamuro, Yagba East and Yagba West bearing his signature. Walk through Koton-Karfe and you will see the total remodeling of Government Science Secondary School, GSS Koton-Karfe, a N1.2 billion to N2.5 billion transformation with administrative blocks, six classrooms, four science laboratories, four ICT laboratories, gatehouse, borehole and solar lights, built in 24 weeks and adjudged the biggest educational infrastructure ever attracted to Kogi West by a sitting legislator. Go to his alma mater Titcombe College Egbe and you will see a 288-seater solar-powered Computer-Based Test Centre worth over N350 million that hosted over 1,200 JAMB candidates, with three more 275-capacity CBT centres secured for Muslim Community Secondary School Lokogoma Lokoja, Government Science Secondary School Iyara Ijumu, Okutadudu Comprehensive College Odo-Ere Yagba West, and a fourth at ECWA Secondary School Mopa personally funded by him.
His credibility is built on personal sacrifice and verifiable performance, not political noise. While others claim government projects as personal, Karimi’s most celebrated interventions are funded from his personal resources through his Foundation, not constituency project money, and that is what shows integrity. His N700 million bursary scheme for over 4,000 students in three years, from 2024 to 2026, is the largest in Kogi State history. It began in 2024 with N100 million for 1,000 Kogi West students at N100,000 each. In 2025 it grew to N300 million for 3,000 students across the three senatorial districts, 1,390 from Kogi West, 1,000 from Kogi East and 610 from Kogi Central, with more than 10,000 applicants and payments commenced January 2026 through the Sunday Steve Karimi Education Foundation and Tinubu Support Group. In August 2026, a third edition of another N300 million opened for applications from August 20 to September 20. Direct payment, ward-based quota, no middlemen.
Projects you can touch define him. From the N1.2 billion GSS Koton-Karfe to the 288-seater CBT Centre, to over 29 solar boreholes and 140 rehabilitated boreholes across Lokoja, Kabba-Bunu, Yagba East and Yagba West, plus five industrial boreholes proposed for Lokoja, to transformers for Sarki Noma, Mount Patti, Obajana and Agbadu, solar streetlights in over 500 communities, classroom blocks at Odo-Ape St. Barnabas and Iluke-Bunu, N10 million donation to Anglican Nursing School Iyara, a cottage hospital at Edu-Kakanda Lokoja awaiting equipping, and empowerment with tricycles, grinding machines, sewing machines, start-up grants and 50 cooperative societies empowered with a N100 million Women Cooperative Revolving Fund in Kabba-Bunu-Ijumu, his interventions give tools to generate income rather than dependency.
Security is where he stands alone. When kidnapping, banditry and killings made the Kogi-Kwara border, Yagba West, Egbe and Odo-Eri ungovernable, he did not write a letter and sleep. For the first time in Kogi West history, a sitting Senator built a military base with his personal money. He spent N750 million of personal funds to build, furnish and equip a 94-bed Military Forward Operating Base at Egbe, complete with accommodation, armory, solar and generator power, donated two Hilux patrol vans and facilitated troop deployment to Jege, Odo-Ere, Isanlu and Olle-Bunu. The Chief of Army Staff commissioned it on October 12, 2024 after the rescue of CUSTECH kidnapped students near Egbe, and the nation recognized him as the Most Security-Conscious Senator in 2024. Farmers have returned to farms, response time has dropped drastically. He also reconstructed the Pakuta Bridge linking Aiyegunle Gbede to Kiri Kingdom, Kupa North and South and Eggan in Lokoja LGA with Niger State, a bridge abandoned for over 15 years, using N23 million personal funds and local labour. On federal roads, he attracted N2 billion for emergency repairs of Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin road and secured another N6 billion to bring the contractor CGC back after 11 years of abandonment, plus N9 billion for Iluhagba-Mopa-Isanlu-Egbe road with N3 billion captured in 2025 budget.
He is accessible and accountable, holding town halls across all three federal constituencies in Kogi West, Kabba-Bunu-Ijumu, Yagba, and Lokoja-Koto, to present his scorecard openly. His loyalty is tested. Very passionate about Nigeria and Kogi, his support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to win Kogi and win well remains a watershed. He leads the Win With Tinubu/Shettima programme in Kogi, extended rice distribution during Christmas, Ramadan, Sallah and Easter to Kogi East and Central in the President’s name, toured Idah, Ankpa and Dekina-Bassa to promote Renewed Hope, and stands as a key pillar of the APC and President Tinubu’s structure in Kogi. That loyalty, combined with performance, is why old tricks will not work.
The rousing reception and donation he made at Ayere, in Ijumu LGA, underscores a timeless truth. As the saying goes, you don’t hide light under a bushel, you set it on a hill. You cannot hide good work. When you put light in Ayere, a community that has waited for federal presence, the people respond with drums, with prayers, with testimony. Another saying holds true here, a golden fish has no hiding place, and as our elders say, good name is better than silver and gold. Karimi says less and does more. His credibility is his record.
He is not just a Senator. As seen during the Ayere day celebration, reaching out and impacting communities across Kogi West. Sen. Karimi is a whirlwind, with organic followers reason why effort to pull his rising profile down, will always fall flat abinitio.
Sen. Karimi is a movement, borne out of genuine and sincere services that has never been witnessed in Kogi West history of representation. When truth travels fast, propaganda dies fast. Kogi West has seen the difference between noise and work, between claims and projects you can touch.
By Oshio Baba, Political Editor, The Nigerian Post.