By joshua 
SEN. SUNDAY KARIMI AT WORK: HOW KOGI WEST FOUND A VOICE THAT DELIVERS
Since he stepped into the Red Chamber, Senator Sunday Karimi has made one thing clear and he has not deviated from it. The wellbeing of the people of Kogi West will be the measure of his representation. From day one he hit the ground running, and three years on, that early promise has hardened into a record that many across the district now describe as the most impactful Kogi West has ever had in the Senate.
It is not just about the volume of projects. It is about the way he has combined presence on the floor with presence in the communities. In Abuja, colleagues know him as one of the quiet movers who speaks only when he has something to add, and when he does, it is usually to push a bill, defend a budget line, or demand accountability for an agency. Back home, the same energy shows up in classrooms rehabilitated, in primary health centres equipped, in solar street lights that now glow in markets that used to go dark at 7pm, and in scholarships that have kept hundreds of Kogi West children in school.
Agriculture has not been left behind. Through facilitated interventions, farmers in Yagba, Lokoja, Kabba-Bunu, Ijumu, Mopa-Muro and Kogi LGA have received inputs, processing equipment and access to federal agricultural programs that were previously out of reach. Youths have been trained in ICT, vocational skills and entrepreneurship, with starter packs to match. Women’s cooperatives have been supported with grants to scale petty trade into real businesses. Constituency town halls, once rare, have become a regular feature of his office, and the feedback from those meetings has shaped the bills and motions he takes to the Senate.
But if there is one issue that has come to define the urgency of his mandate, it is roads. And no road has tested his resolve like the Kabba–Ilorin corridor, and the Omuaran–Obbo-Ille–Eruku–Egbe stretch that links Kogi West to Kwara and the South West.
For decades that 143-kilometre route was treated as an afterthought. What should be a two to three hour drive now drags into seven, eight hours, sometimes an entire day. Heavy trucks tip over and block the way. In the rains, whole sections vanish and drivers are forced to cut through the forest. In the forest, another danger waits. Bandits have turned the bad spots into ambush points. In October 2025, nine passengers heading toward Ilorin were abducted. In September, three police officers and two vigilantes were killed in an attack.
The human cost is written in stories like that of Mr. Mayowa Olumuyiwa, a commercial driver who on March 2, 2026 was transporting cashew on the Egbe–Eruku road when gunmen emerged from the bush. He and his conductor jumped and ran. The bandits, furious at losing their target, set the newly acquired hire-purchase bus ablaze. Mayowa watched his livelihood burn to ashes.
It is in that context that Senator Karimi’s intervention must be understood. Even though Obbo-Ille and Eruku fall in Kwara South, the road is the only federal artery for Yagba people, and he has refused to look away because of boundary lines on a map.
First, he moved to secure the corridor. A military Forward Operating Base now sits at the Egbe–Eruku boundary, an initiative facilitated by the Senator that has helped prevent a total collapse of security in the area.
Then he went after the road itself. He has been in constant engagement with the Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, and with the Controllers of Works in Kogi and Kwara. Those conversations produced results. Within Kogi State, rehabilitation is already progressing along the Ejiba–Isanlu stretch of the Kabba–Egbe–Ilorin road, handled by CGC under SUK VI funding. That segment will run through to Ayetoro-Gbede. In total, Senator Karimi facilitated about N9 billion for the Kabba–Ilorin road: N3 billion directly inserted into his 2025 capital and special intervention budget, and another N6 billion secured through direct talks with the Works Minister.
For the Kwara section, where federal and state attention has lagged, he chose a different route. He took the matter to the doorsteps of the companies whose trucks have contributed most to the wear and tear. In discussions with Mangal Industries, Dangote and BUA Cement, he pressed for immediate palliatives on the worst spots. Mangal has committed to a monthly N50 million intervention to maintain access roads within and outside Ilu-Hagba, its host community, and has assured the Senator they will extend effort to critical portions. Talks with Dangote and BUA are ongoing, with the Senator pushing for a joint industry intervention.
He has also taken the security dimension to the Office of the National Security Adviser, because no road can be fixed if people cannot travel it safely.
Speaking recently, Senator Karimi was blunt. “Over the last three weeks I have been following up with the Honourable Minister of Works and relevant officials. The major challenge, as with many other projects, is funding. I am just as concerned as everyone who plies the road, and I will continue to lobby until relief comes to our people.” He did not promise magic. He promised persistence, and so far that persistence is the only thing keeping hope alive for commuters on that route.
That is the pattern of his representation. Identify the pain point, take it to the right table in Abuja, bring resources home, and stay on it until something moves. It is why markets in Kogi West now have solar lighting. It is why health centres have received equipment and drugs. It is why students are graduating because someone paid their fees. It is why traditional rulers, youth leaders and market women all say the same thing in different words: for the first time in a long while, Kogi West has a Senator who answers the phone and follows through.
The road to Ilorin is not fixed yet. But for the first time in 20 years, there is a timeline, there is money in the budget, there is equipment on the ground in Kogi, and there is a Senator who treats a Kwara boundary road as his business because his people use it every day.
Senator Sunday Karimi came to the Senate with a simple contract. Put the people first. By that standard, Kogi West has found more than a representative. It has found a benchmark.