By joshua 
Hon. Sunday Steve Karimi graduated with a Distinction in Production Engineering and was the Best Graduating Student when he finished from the Kwara State College of Technology (Now Kwara State Polytechnic Ilorin), Kwara State.
He attended the famous Titcombe College in his native Egbe home in Yagba West Local Government Area of Kogi State.
He ventured into private business, where he has made a success of that enterprise. He has been very active in politics, particularly in Kogi state, since the current democratic dispensation in 1999. He won election into the House of Representatives in 2011 and got re-elected again in 2015, owing to the brilliant performance he displayed in the manner of his representation. He is one of the front-line candidates for the Senate of the Kogi West in the 2023 election. He is happily married with his lovely wife and beautiful children. He spoke on his ambition, among others. Excerpts:
As a two-term member of the Hose of Representatives, you impacted so much on your constituents then. How do you think this can add value to your aspiration now, particularly from the Yagba people?
There is this popular parable that charity begins at home. I won election to represent my Federal Constituency in 2011 and I won again in 2015. So, I represented them for eight years in the House of Representatives. In Those eight years, there is no community in the 34 wards of the constituency that did not feel my impact positively. To the glory of God, during those eight years, If you travel all over Yagbaland, there is no community, location nor settlement, where you will not find my footprint.
During the dry season, our people are usually faced with the problem of water, particularly how to source portable water. I identified this and provided solar powered motorized borehole to those communities. They are there and they can be verified. Also, there is the problem of electricity supply, I addressed this in the best way I could. If you go communities like Okoloke, Isanlu Esa and Okunran in Yagba West, they have suffered lack of electricity supply for long. But to the glory of God, I was able to connect the communities to the National Grid and also ensured distribution system that made sure that many other communities have electricity supplied to them.
I also ensured that we moved government closer to the people in the area of education. Schools without good class rooms were rehabilitated. Furniture was provided and those schools were made more comfortable and more learning friendly with the provision of these essentials. Scholarship was made available to students who were deficient in the payment of their school fees and all these things cut across the 34 wards of my Federal Constituency.
I also initiated what is called Yagba People Empowerment Scheme. I made 34 million Naira of my personal money available to this scheme. It has a board that managed it and I was never personally involved in the running of the scheme. The board is made up of credible Yagba people. The scheme was initiated to give out loans to people who are doing business, no matter how small, so that they can run their businesses well and unhindered. It was a revolving scheme and each of the ward had a million naira. It was registered with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The unfortunate thig is that, people took the loans and did not pay back and that left the scheme where it is today. But in all, I did my best to serve my people and that was why they rewarded me to serve them for two terms, which never happened in the history of the Federal Constituency.
What I did in my Federal Constituency, I want to replicate and surpass it in the Kogi West Senatorial District. I want to create infrastructural development that will take our people out of the present predicament. For instance, let us look at the road that connects Lokoja to Abuja. That road was awarded since 2003 and up till now it has not been completed. In fact and in most cases, if you observe well, where they started those roads would have gotten bad before they are completed. That is the situation of the Abuja-Lokoja Federal high way. Look at the flooding that is currently ravaging that road, there is a need to take a more critical look at it. We need to meet the Federal Government and discuss about it. This is twelve years and yet the road has not been completed. There must be an end to the it and that end must bring the road to completion.
Again, look at the Rivers Niger/Benue that have caused this unprecedent flooding. There is need for proper dredging of the confluence, to accommodate this huge volume of water being released to this axis. Outside this, there is a need to build embarkment, to push the water back not to split over to where people are living and causing this kind of devastation that we are witnessing now. It happened in 2012 and exactly ten years later we are witnessing another one that is even more devastating than the one of 2012. Many lives have been lost. Properties have been destroyed. Farmlands ruined and many people rendered homeless. I really symphatise with those affected. These are the areas where good representation is needed so that one can work with the State government to proffer lasting solution to it.
Look at our road from Kabba-Mopa-Isanlu-Egbe to Ilorin. The contract for the re-construction and rehabilitation of this road was awarded since 2014. The contractors left in December 2014 and up till now, they have not return back to site. Can we say now that the contract is still valid?
So, what do you think you can do to salvage this terrible situation if you win your election sir?
We have to look at the options available to us as a people, because what is obvious now is that the Federal Government is being saddled with so much responsibilities to the extent that I don’t think they can bear everything. So, if we can look at the option of concession arrangement or tax waiver, as the Federal Government did to Dangote in the Obajana-Kabba portion of the Federal Road. The Kabba-Ilorin Road is too critical to our people and we cannot just continue to be looking at our people suffering like this on that road. We need to do something on it and that will be one of my first priorities when God gives us victory in 2023.
The form or the system of government we are operating in Nigeria is not helping us to get things done as it ought to be today. Power is too much concentrated in the centre and everybody must come to the centre and beg for food as it is today. Power must be devolved and be decentralized to states and local governments, so as to reduce this too much concentration on the centre. If we have this decentralization, it will address the issues of unemployment, youth restfulness, crime and criminalities and take away so much of these burdens from the Federal Government.
But to achieve this, there must an amendment to the First Schedule of our Constitution, in which the State Assemblies will be autonomous in funding and not controlled by the state governments. This will make them to have courage to carry Oversight functions on the Executives. That is why the National Assembly is different because it has its own budget and not subjected to the control of the Executive arm that is why it has the power to do what is doing today. If we have that for our State Assemblies and local governments, it will help to attract quality development such that our local governments can embark on projects on their own such as developing rural roads, provision of water, and so on. Every problem in Nigeria is local, so local governments can deal with these issues better. Today we have kidnapping that is so rampant. If we have State Police system, those involved cannot succeed in the manner they carry on like this because if we have local police, they will easily be identified and be fished out. So, if the states have their own local outfits, all these issues will reduce greatly as people will be able to go to their farms, do their trading and move around unmolested. We need a serious constitutional amendment of this First Schedule of the Constitution so that we can get out of these woes and these are issues I hope to canvass and get done when we get there by the grace of God.
You can see that I am so passionate about this Kabba-Ilorin road because it holds so much for us as a people and revenue must be generated to maintain it even when it is completed. One of the greatest challenges we have is that people are not paying for the usage of the roads and that is not done anywhere. There is nowhere in the world where you just drive on the roads freely. No matter how little, revenue must be generated to ensure the roads are maintained. We must not deceive ourselves about that. The Federal Government is awarding contracts every time without funding those projects. How can a nation run like that and how can we develop like that? Government must be run properly before it can have good and lasting effects on the people. So, if these roads are ceded to state governments, they will be properly maintained particularly in partnering with development agencies, then they will generate revenues which can be channeled back to maintaining the roads. All these heavy and articulated vehicles that ply the roads are doing business and they must be made to pay for the businesses they are doing on our roads.
There is so much talk about the Yagba unity in the pursuit of this senate agenda but there is another candidate contesting from Yagba too. Are you reaching out to the candidate to reach a consensus?
Well, the candidate you are talking about has the ticket of his party and I have the ticket of my party. I am running my campaign, that is all I know. But let me tell you that Yagba people know better. If we in Yagba want to win the senate, our people know the person they can put their trust on and they know better as I said before. However, let me tell you that I have the experience, I have the competence, I have the ability and capability, I have the capacity, I have the wherewithal and I have the God given endowment to lead the good people of Kogi west in the next dispensation.
In my eight years in the House of Representatives, I moved over 30 Motions, sponsored over 20 Bills. I was vibrant on the floor with my contributions. I am not timid. I fear God but no human being can intimidate me. So, I have a background that sells me to my people. My people love me and I am passionate about them too.
What is your relationship with the governor of Kogi State?
I am running a campaign under my party and to the glory of God, the government of Kogi state is under the All Progressive Congress (APC). I have no other party. Our leader is Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello, the governor of the state and I am submissive to the leadership of the party. We will move round to campaign throughout the senatorial district. I cannot but emphasis that I need the support of the governor to excel. I need the support of all the good people of Kogi West to win and we are working hard to ensure that all the candidates of the APC win all the elections. We are working hand in hand to achieve that.
What is your opinion about the Muslim/Muslim ticket of your party?
I don’t know why as politicians; we bring things that will not unite us as a nation. The presidential candidate of our party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has continually emphasized the need to engage competent hands in handling the affairs of the country and anywhere that quality is found, he will not compromise. We must have a good country before we can say we are either Christians or Muslims. So, I don’t see the hue and cry over the choice of a particular person based on his religious background. Why must we polarize the nation along such a line?
Our Constitution is very clear about this issue, we are a secular state. We are all equal under our constitution and there is no need to whip up such a sentiment now. Such sentiment is a negation of the spirit of our constitution because the Nigeria nation has no state religion.
What is the driving force behind your ambition?
As I said before, I have the passion to serve my people and I believe going to the senate is one of the platforms to serve them. Kogi West is very peculiar. We have the largest number of ethnic groups in the state among the three senatorial districts. We have the Okuns, we have the Oworos, Koto people, the Hausas, the Nupes, the Kakandas, among others. So, we need to harness and exploit the advantages confer on us by these diversities. These are great, loving and hard-working people that anybody will want to work with. We have farmers, some are fishermen, traders, great, articulate and vibrant people. It is my desire to work and partner with them to move our senatorial forward.
Basically, Kogi West is divided into three Federal Constituencies: Yagba Federal Constituency, Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency and Lokoja/Kotonkarfe Federal Constituency. One of the great leaders from the senatorial district is Senator Tunde Ogbeha who was in the senate between 1999 and 2007. He is from Lokoja/Kotonkarfe Federal Constituency. Since he left in the last 16 years, we have had people from Ijumu in the Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency as our Senators. That is why we are saying that it is the turn of the Yagba people to produce the next senator. Just as we are clamoring that the governor of Kogi state must come from Kogi West, we are also saying that it is the turn of the Yagba people to produce the next senate for Kogi West. This what is fair and just, after 23 years that a Yagba person was in the Senate.
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