By joshua Karimi: The Unchangeable Change Kogi West Can’t Afford To Lose
By Our Reporter.
What manner of man will place the interest of his constituents far above his personal comfort and political convenience? That summation fits perfectly Senator Sunday Steve Karimi, representing Kogi West Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
From the day he took his oath of office, he didn’t mince words. He hit the ground running. For a man whose senatorial election covered seven local government areas – Lokoja, Kogi, Kabba-Bunu, Ijumu, Mopamuro, Yagba East and Yagba West – the financing that went into that election to prove naysayers wrong and silence mischief makers was enormous, comparable to that of running a state governorship election.
Not done with electioneering, came the hydra-headed litigation that ran all through from Tribunal to Court of Appeal and finally to the Supreme Court. At the end, he was justified by the overwhelming votes of the people as the Judiciary affirmed his victory.
Senator Karimi didn’t go to sleep. Like a bull in a china shop, he hit the ground running with interventions to provide palliatives to cushion subsidy removal, farm inputs, fertilizers, sprayers and seedlings to farmers across Kogi West, a gesture that endeared him to the agrarian communities.
His early accomplishments set the tone for what has become the most impactful representation Kogi West has seen since 1999. He personally funded temporary interventions on the critical Kabba-Ilorin and Bunu-Iluke-Budon roads when government abandoned them. He reconstructed the collapsed Pakuta Bridge linking Aiyegunle-Gbede, Kiri Kingdom, Kupa North/South and parts of Niger State, restoring economic life to thousands. He attracted N2 billion for emergency repairs of the abandoned Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin road and secured additional N6 billion from the Minister of Works to return the contractor to site after 11 years of abandonment.
On security, where others speak, Karimi acted. He constructed and handed over a fully furnished 96-bed Military Forward Operating Base in Egbe, Yagba West, personally funded accommodation and welfare for personnel, donated two Hilux patrol vans, and built another FOB along the Kogi-Kwara border to confront kidnapping and banditry. For this, he was honoured nationally as Nigeria’s Most Security-Conscious Senator.
On water, his record is unprecedented. He facilitated 75 new solar-powered boreholes across all wards, rehabilitated 60 moribund water schemes at a cost of N1.24 billion, and in Lokoja alone delivered 29 solar-powered motorized boreholes with 5 industrial boreholes planned to end perennial shortage. Today no ward in Kogi West is left behind. From Effo-Amuro to Workers Village, from Karaworo Centre to Up Anguwan Pawa, water flows.
On power, over 32 transformers have been distributed to communities like Sarki Noma, Mount Patti, Obajana, Offege-Baptist, and over 500 solar-powered street lights installed across 62 communities. He has launched the free Karimi Cares Coastal Bus transport scheme in Lokoja, plying Zango-Shettima-Barracks to Nataco axis morning and evening with fully air-conditioned buses to cushion transport costs.
On education, his imprint is indelible. At his alma mater Titcombe College Egbe, he built a 288-seat solar-powered CBT centre valued at over N350 million that hosted over 1,200 JAMB candidates last year. Three more 275-seater CBT centres have been captured in the 2026 budget for Muslim Community Secondary School Lokongoma, Government Science School Iyara and Okutadudu Comprehensive College Odo-Ere, while a fourth at ECWA Secondary School Mopa is personally funded by him. He renovated blocks of classrooms, donated N10 million each to Anglican Nursery School, Iyara Day, Ayetoro Day and Ekinrin-Adde Day, and released N20 million of his N50 million pledge for Kabba Day. His bursary scheme paid N100,000 each to 1,000 students in 2024, N300 million to 3,000 students across Kogi State in 2025, with another N300 million for 3,000 students announced for 2026 covering 1,390 from Kogi West, 1,000 from Kogi East and 610 from Kogi Central.
For women and widows, he disbursed N100 million to 50 registered women cooperatives at N2 million each as revolving capital after intensive business training for over 550 women, while thousands of farmers and youths have benefitted from employment facilitation and empowerment.
Legislatively, as Chairman Senate Committee on Services, he has sponsored the Bill to bar CBN Governor and deputies from partisan politics which passed second reading, reintroduced the Bill for Federal University of Agriculture Kabba which has passed all legislative stages awaiting presidential assent, and moved motions on road funding and national unity.
His superlative performance has made him the sole candidate for the 2027 general election for Kogi West in the heart of the people, not minding the stumbling blocks and claims of godfatherism. He has come out unperturbed because his mandate is of the people.
Now that all eyes are tailored towards the National Assembly election, from Kogi LGA to Kabba, Ijumu, Mopamuro, Yagba East and Yagba West, the people seem resolved that if the grassroots remains the determinant, Senator Karimi is already home and dry. In Bunu District, the entire stakeholders recently endorsed him for second term and gave him an Award of Excellence as having delivered Unequalled Representation in Kogi West’s History, vowing 100 percent votes for Tinubu and Karimi.
While in politics until the final whistle is blown anything can happen, the general consensus in Kogi West today is that there is no vacancy. If truth be told, Senator Karimi remains the unchangeable change the people look and clamour for. A man who is unassuming but simple to a fault, who speaks to power courageously, is what stands him out.
And though for him to have value and make rewards for more work his mainstay, the Egyptians he may be seeing today are obstacles to make his victory a crowning by the people and not by godfathers, a feat that will make him sustain service to the people when he returns like he has done thus far, just like his imprimatur when he two times served in the House of Representatives.
The majority of voters in Kogi West have made up their mind. It is Karimi and nothing else.