By joshua PERFORMANCE DON’T LIE: Constituents Know When A Man Is Good, Working — How Senator Karimi Is Rewriting Representation In Kogi West
By Our Reporter
In politics, slogans fade. Performance doesn’t lie. And in Kogi West today, from the riverine settlements of Koton-Karfe to the hills of Egbe, constituents are saying it in one voice: when a man is good and working, the people will know. That man, for Kogi West, is Senator Sunday Steve Karimi.
When Kogi West went to the polls in 2023, they did not just elect a Senator. They elected an Engineer, a tested two-term House of Representatives member, and the first man from Yagba to reach the Senate since 1999. What they have gotten in return is a practical lesson in what legislative ranking, experience and character can deliver. As Chairman, Senate Services Committee, Senator Karimi is no longer learning the ropes. He is holding the ropes for Kogi West. And the evidence, verifiable across all seven Local Government Areas as of September 2026, is louder than any campaign poster.
On September 18, 2026, the story changed physically in Kogi Local Government Area. The commissioning of the fully remodeled Government Science Secondary School, Koton-Karfe — facilitated through the National Senior Secondary Education Commission at over N1.2 billion, with some reports valuing the total intervention at N1.5 billion — became the single biggest educational infrastructure ever attracted to Kogi West by a sitting legislator.
But Karimi’s education model is two-pronged: while he builds, he pays. In Egbe, his alma mater Titcombe College wears a new look. He transformed the old library into a modern, solar-powered Computer-Based Test Centre at over N350 million, with 288-seater capacity that hosted over 1,200 JAMB candidates in the last diet. That success is now being scaled. In the 2026 appropriation, he has secured three additional 275-capacity CBT Centres — each fully equipped with 275 laptops, internet, CCTV, solar and standby generators — at Muslim Community Secondary School, Lokogoma in Lokoja LGA, Government Science School, Iyara in Ijumu LGA, and Okutadudu Comprehensive College, Odo-Ere in Yagba West LGA. A fourth centre at ECWA Secondary School, Mopa, is being personally funded by the Senator in partnership with the community.
His bursary scheme has become the largest in Kogi State’s history. 1,000 students from Kogi West received N100,000 each in 2024. In 2025, he expanded it to 3,000 students across Kogi State with N300 million disbursed in January 2026. A fresh N300 million bursary for another 3,000 students — 1,390 from Kogi West, 1,000 from Kogi East and 610 from Kogi Central — has been announced, with the portal open from August 20 to September 20, 2026. He insists, and records show, it is personally funded, not constituency project money.
When kidnappers turned the Kogi-Kwara border into a corridor of fear, Senator Karimi did not wait for budget releases. He put N750 million of his personal resources on the line and fully built, furnished and equipped a 94-bed military Forward Operating Base in Egbe, Yagba West LGA, complete with accommodation, armoury, solar and generator power. He donated two brand new Hilux patrol vans and facilitated deployment of troops to Jege, Odo-Ere, Isanlu and Olle-Bunu. The Chief of Army Staff commissioned it on October 12, 2024 and commended the intervention as timely after the rescue of CUSTECH kidnapped students near Egbe. That single act earned him national recognition as the Most Security-Conscious Senator in Nigeria. Today, farmers go to farm and travelers ply the Egbe-Ilorin corridor with confidence.
The Pakuta Bridge linking Aiyegunle Gbede in Ijumu LGA to Kiri Kingdom, Kupa North and South and Eggan in Lokoja LGA, with Niger State, had collapsed for over 15 years, cutting off trade and creating security vulnerability. Karimi personally funded its reconstruction for N23 million using local labour and reopened commerce. On federal roads, he is doing what first-term Senators only dream of. He secured N9 billion for the Iluhagba-Mopa-Isanlu-Egbe road, with N3 billion captured in the 2025 budget and additional N6 billion secured from the Minister of Works, with contractor CGC already mobilized to site on the Isanlu-Ejiba axis. For the abandoned Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin road, he attracted about N2 billion for emergency repairs and secured additional N6 billion to return the contractor to site, 11 years after abandonment.
In Kogi West today, no Ward is left behind. Records show 85 solar-powered boreholes, one per ward, plus facilitation of 75 new ones and rehabilitation of over 60 non-functional water schemes. At his Lokoja Town Hall in August 2026, he announced 22 solar-powered motorized boreholes delivered and five industrial boreholes planned for Lokoja metropolis. On power, over 32 transformers distributed, with beneficiaries including Sarki Noma, Mount Patti, Obajana, Offege-Baptist, and over 500 solar-powered street lights installed across 62 communities.
For economic empowerment, 50 women cooperatives received N2 million each, totaling N100 million, after rigorous business training, structured as revolving capital to ensure sustainability. He also donated N10 million each to Anglican Nursery School, Iyara Day, Ayetoro Day, Ekinrin-Adde Day and released N20 million of a pledged N50 million for Kabba Day celebrations.
Beyond projects, Senator Karimi has reintroduced the Bill for Federal University of Agriculture, Kabba, which has now passed all legislative stages and awaits presidential assent. He has also sponsored bills on barring the CBN Governor and deputies from partisan politics and critical motions on road funding and national unity.
This is the power of ranking. A first-term Senator lobbies. A second-term ranking Senator chairs. A ranking Senator attracts. Returning Senator Karimi in 2027 means Kogi West moves from the queue to the high table, with the capacity to attract a Federal University, a Medical University in Egbe, more CBT centres, principal offices in the Senate, and federal presence that the zone has never enjoyed.
Twelve years after he first entered the House, the verdict from Kabba to Lokoja, from Egbe to Koton-Karfe is consistent and unmistakable: water is flowing, lights are on, children are in school, farmers are crossing bridges, and people sleep with both eyes closed. Performance don’t lie. When a man is good, working, constituents know. And Kogi West knows it has found a square peg in a square hole.