By joshua SENATOR KARIMI SUNDAY STEVE: A SCORE CARD OF CONSISTENT QUALITY REPRESENTATION
By Abu Micheal.
From the engineering drawing board to the floor of the National Assembly, Distinguished Senator Karimi Sunday Steve has carried one idea with him: that public office is about equal opportunity and measurable service. Born on March 10 in Egbe, then Oyi Local Government and now Yagba West LGA, he built a successful career as an Engineer in both public and private sectors before venturing into politics. That technical background has shaped how he approaches representation, with an eye for design, for supervision, and for delivery that lasts.
The people of Yagba Federal Constituency first sent him to the House of Representatives in 2011, and renewed the mandate in 2015. In 2023, Kogi West made history by electing him to the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the platform of the All Progressives Congress. Since 1999, he is the first man from Yagba to sit in the Red Chamber. It was a barrier broken, but for Senator Karimi, the bigger task was to prove that the trust could be matched with results across all seven local governments of Kogi West.
Even as a member of the House, he promised what he called equal opportunity quality representation, and he set out to deliver the dividends of democracy to every ward. The record from 2011 to 2015 shows a lawmaker who treated basic needs as non-negotiable. Water came first. Hand pump boreholes that had gone dry were rehabilitated and converted to motorized, solar-powered systems with UPVC tanks and proper fetching points. The communities that benefited included Takete-Ide, Aiyeteju-Amuro, Illai Ward 5 in Mopa, Eyin-Odi and Iloko in Egbe, Oke-Egbe beside the 1st ECWA Church, the Oba’s Palace in Egbe, Ere in Ife-Olukotun, Ejuku, Ponyan, Egbe-Tuntun and Odo-Egbe Ward II. Those projects were self-financed, completed, and handed over, and many of them were renovated again when he returned to the National Assembly as Senator.
He did not stop there. New hand pump boreholes were sunk in over 20 communities such as Ejiba, Odo-Ere, Ogbe, Okoloke, Makutu-Isanlu, Bagido-Isanlu, Igbagun, Oke-Egbe in ECWA Hospital, Ile-Eja in Oke-Egbe, the Salvation Army area in Ward 4 Oke-Egbe, Isaba in Ward 1 Oke-Egbe, Otun-Okua in Odo-Egbe, Itedo in Ijowa-Isanlu, and Ode-Ere. Additional new motorized solar boreholes with UPVC tanks were constructed in Jege, Igbaruku, Egbe-Tuntun and Aiyetoro-Amuro. All were completed and have remained in use.
Township water schemes also got attention. The Isanlu, Egbe and Ife-Olukotun water schemes under the Lower Niger River Basin were rehabilitated. The Isanlu scheme had been down for more than five years before it was brought back to life. The Iwelle Water Works in Egbe was completed, and the Ife-Olukotun scheme was fully rehabilitated.
On electricity, the focus was on resuscitation, extension and access. The Omo-Owa Mopo extension in Isanlu had been initiated 12 years earlier and abandoned. Senator Karimi financed its completion, and it now serves residents. The Ofin-Isanlu transformer and extension project captured under the 2021 Appropriation is fully functional. The Ejuku and Egbe transformer and extension projects delivered under the 2012 Appropriation were completed. Solar street lighting was installed in Ejiba, Odo-Eri, Mopa, Ejuku, Ife-Olukotun, Odo-Ere, Ponyan, Oke-Ere, Isanlu-Bagido and Mopo, Isanlu-Ijowa and Makutu, Idofin-Isanlu and Ogbom. Through the 2013 Appropriation, he facilitated 10 solar motorized boreholes in Egbe-Ipo, Egbe-Oke Agada, Itedo-Isanlu, Mopa, Oranre, Ife-Olukotun, Ogga, Odo-Ere and Jege, and 34 solar-powered lights and poles across communities. Nine 500KVA transformers were provided to Mopa Town, Aiyedayo-Amuro, Mopo-Isanlu, Itedo-Ijowa-Isanlu, Ogga, Egbe, Odo-Ere, Ife-Olukotun and Igbagun. Working with Senator Smart Adeyemi, he also helped resuscitate and complete the rural electrification project in Okunran, Okoloke and Isanlu-Essa, a project that had stalled for 12 years.
Education was treated as infrastructure for the mind. The Amuro Community Secondary School and St. Kizito College in Isanlu were rehabilitated. Preparatory lessons for WAEC, NECO and JAMB were organized and coordinated by Mr. Kolawole Oyewole to give students an edge.
Youth and economic empowerment were pursued with the same urgency. Fourteen motorcycles were purchased and handed to young people. Constituents were sponsored for pilgrimage, eight Muslims for Hajj in 2012 and seven Christians to Israel, Rome and Greece in 2013. Artisans received 25 grinding machines and 50 sewing machines. Markets in Ebu-Oke Egbe, Mopo-Isanlu, Bagido-Isanlu and Odo-Egbe were rehabilitated and upgraded to improve commerce.
In 2014 he launched the Yagba People Empowerment Initiative, incorporated with the Corporate Affairs Commission and managed by trustees drawn from respected constituents. The initiative screened, trained and financed owners of micro and small businesses. Senator Karimi donated N34 million of personal funds and used his goodwill to raise about N100 million, which was domiciled in a trustees’ account and disbursed to beneficiaries. At the launch in Isanlu Township Hall, he distributed about 15 vehicles, over 60 motorcycles, several tricycles, grinding machines and deep freezers. The goal was to put capital directly in the hands of people and grow the local economy from the bottom up.
His lawmaking in the 7th Assembly reflected the same seriousness. He sponsored bills on explosives, whistleblower protection, a national road fund, national grazing routes and reserves, national symbols, and amendments to the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council Act, the Merchant Shipping Act and NIMASA Act. He moved motions on rising commodity prices, the deplorable Obajana-Kabba-Isanlu-Egbe-Omu Aran federal road, budget implementation, and the need to declare a state of emergency on Nigerian roads with an intervention fund.
Between 2015 and 2019 in the 8th Assembly, the tempo increased. In 2016 he facilitated over 12 solar motorized boreholes with 10,000-litre UPVC tanks on 6-metre stands in Mopa-Amuro, Yagba West and Yagba East. Later that year, during an empowerment program, he distributed 150 motorcycles, 20 tricycles, 50 sewing machines, 20 generators, 75 pepper-grinding machines for women across the 34 wards, three block-moulding machines and a giant generator for a welder in Mopa. He gave a bursary of N20,000 each to 350 students, one from each ward plus 10 extra, and facilitated the training of 10 artisans from each ward in Lokoja, Okene and Anyigba. His bills in this period included the Cancer Control and Prevention Bill, amendments to strengthen legislative powers, and proposals on grazing reserves, road funding and electoral reform. His motions addressed governance cost, insecurity, hunger, banking charges, vote buying and farmer-herder clashes.
The 10th Senate has seen him scale up. His bills include the Dishonored Cheques Repeal and Re-enactment Bill, CBN Amendment Bill, ICPC Amendment Bill, Electoral Act Amendment Bill, and establishment bills for the Federal University of Agriculture Kabba and the Federal University of Medicine and Medical Sciences Egbe. He has also sponsored constitutional alteration bills on state police, local government autonomy, and eligibility for presiding officers, as well as bills on e-gaming, sports development fund, highways, delegated legislation and National Assembly financial autonomy. On the floor, he has moved motions on national unity, federal road financing, refinery turnaround maintenance, oil theft, the naira redesign contract, subsidy palliatives, and the need to remove bottlenecks in the downstream sector for energy security and fair pricing.
The projects he has attracted to Kogi West since 2023 speak to security, education, power and water. He conceptualized and self-financed an 85-bed Army Forward Operating Base on the Kwara-Kogi border in Egbe, with offices, a commander’s residence, officers’ and soldiers’ messes, an armory, watchtower and solar and standby power, to cut response time to crime. The Government Science Secondary School Kotonkarfe is undergoing a complete upgrade worth over N2.5 billion. New classroom blocks have been delivered in St. Barnabas College Kabba, Community Secondary School Odo-Ape, Government Secondary School Iluke-Bunu, and Government Secondary School Igbaruku, with a National Open University study centre ongoing.
Power supply has been boosted with the distribution of 500KVA and 300KVA transformers across communities in Lokoja, Kabba-Bunu, Ijumu, Yagba East, Yagba West, Kogi and others, from Sarkin Noma and Felele to Ponyan, Iyara and Egbe. Over 140 solar-powered motorized boreholes have been constructed in the first year alone, spread across Lokoja A, B, C and E, Lokoja II, Kupa North and South, Oworo, Kabba-Bunu and others. Not less than 200 solar street lights have been installed across Yagba West, Yagba East, Ijumu, Kabba-Bunu and Kogi LGAs.
In 2024, he established a bursary scheme that gave N100,000 each to 1,000 indigent students from Kogi West in public tertiary institutions. Working with the Tinubu Support Group, he extended it to the other two senatorial districts, disbursing N300 million to 3,000 Kogites under the Renewed Hope Initiative. His wife runs an annual program that disbursed N100 million to 50 women cooperatives, with N2 million per cooperative on a revolving basis. The Pakuta Bridge project is underway to improve connectivity between Ijumu, Bunu and Lokoja. Every Christmas, Ramadan, Lent, Sallah and Easter, he purchases and distributes about a trailer of rice per local government, a program he has also extended to Kogi East and Central in the name of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He has made donations to communities affected by the Egbe boat mishap, and to town unions during annual days, and he has facilitated federal employment for constituents in agencies including the National Assembly Service Commission, FIRS, RMAFC, FCSC, and the security services.
From boreholes that still run to classrooms that now have roofs, from transformers that power small businesses to scholarships that keep students in school, the pattern is clear. Senator Sunday Steve Karimi has built his representation around presence, supervision and continuity. He promised equal opportunity, and across Kogi West, he has worked to turn that promise into projects people can touch.
More Details in Part 2.