Sen. Sunday Karimi: The Diamond In The Rough, The Onion With Many Peels, Why Kogi West Must Not Toy With 2027
There are politicians. And then there are representatives. Senator Sunday Steve Karimi, the distinguished Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, belongs to the rare second category, a worthy representative many times over, whose accomplishments remain top notch, whose lifestyle is simplicity, and whose politics is people.
In Kogi West today, to speak of Karimi is to speak of a doyen, not by age, but by depth, by results, and by acceptance. He is a diamond in the rough, an onion with many peels. Peel one layer, you see the Engineer. Peel another, you see the two-term House of Representatives member. Peel another, you see the first Yagba man to reach the Senate since 1999. Peel another, you see the Chairman, Senate Services Committee, a ranking voice holding the ropes for Kogi West at the centre. And at every peel, what you find is unusual representation, quiet, strategic, and massively impactful. This is why his re-election in 2027 is not just an election. It is a collaboration that must not be toyed with.
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Since his inauguration in 2023, Senator Karimi has redefined what legislative representation means in Kogi West. He has moved the conversation from sharing to building, from promises to proof. In education, he made history with the full remodeling of Government Science Secondary School, Koton-Karfe, facilitated through the National Senior Secondary Education Commission at over N1.2 billion, adjudged the biggest educational infrastructure ever attracted to Kogi West by a sitting legislator. In his alma mater, Titcombe College, Egbe, he built a 288-seater solar-powered Computer-Based Test Centre worth over N350 million that hosted over 1,200 JAMB candidates in the last diet. Three more 275-capacity centres, each with 275 laptops, internet, CCTV, solar and generators, have been secured in the 2026 appropriation for Muslim Community Secondary School, Lokogoma, Lokoja LGA, Government Science School, Iyara, Ijumu LGA, and Okutadudu Comprehensive College, Odo-Ere, Yagba West LGA, with a fourth at ECWA Secondary School, Mopa, personally funded by him.
His bursary remains the largest in Kogi State history, 1,000 students at N100,000 each in 2024, 3,000 students across Kogi State at N300 million in 2025 disbursed in January 2026, and another N300 million for 3,000 students, 1,390 Kogi West, 1,000 Kogi East, 610 Kogi Central, with portal opened from August 20 to September 20, 2026, all personally funded. Come November, disbursement will begin.
In security, when the Kogi-Kwara border became a kidnap corridor, he did not write a motion and sleep. He committed N750 million of personal funds to build, furnish and equip a 94-bed military Forward Operating Base in Egbe, donated two Hilux patrol vans, and facilitated troop deployment to Jege, Odo-Ere, Isanlu and Olle-Bunu. The Chief of Army Staff commissioned it on October 12, 2024, after the rescue of CUSTECH students, and the nation named him the Most Security-Conscious Senator in Nigeria.
In infrastructure, he personally reconstructed the collapsed Pakuta Bridge linking Aiyegunle Gbede to Kiri, Kupa and Niger State for N23 million, secured N9 billion for Iluhagba-Mopa-Isanlu-Egbe road with N3 billion in 2025 budget and N6 billion extra from the Minister of Works with CGC mobilized to site, and attracted N2 billion plus another N6 billion to return contractor to the abandoned Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin road after 11 years.
In water and power, his record shows 85 solar-powered boreholes, one per ward, plus 75 facilitated and over 60 rehabilitated, with 22 solar-powered motorized boreholes announced at his Lokoja Town Hall in August 2026 and five industrial boreholes planned for Lokoja metropolis, over 32 transformers to communities including Sarki Noma, Mount Patti, Obajana, and over 500 solar street lights across 62 communities. In empowerment, 50 women cooperatives received N2 million each totalling N100 million after rigorous business training.
Legislatively, he has reintroduced the Bill for Federal University of Agriculture, Kabba, now passed all legislative stages awaiting presidential assent, alongside bills on barring CBN Governor and deputies from partisan politics.
What sets Karimi apart is not just what he does in Abuja, but how he remains available and visible at home. He is not an Abuja Senator. He is a home Senator. His town hall meetings across Lokoja, Kabba, Isanlu, Mopa and Egbe in August 2026 were not political jamborees — they were accountability sessions where constituents checked the books, asked questions and gave endorsements. And the endorsements were resounding. From traditional rulers to youth groups, market women, student bodies and party stakeholders, the verdict was unanimous: Senator Karimi has performed beyond expectation. The town halls became a referendum on performance, and performance won. That is why his re-election is sacrosanct.
In the Nigerian Senate, ranking is gold. A first-term Senator lobbies. A ranking Senator chairs. A ranking Senator determines. Kogi West has never been this close to the high table. Returning Senator Karimi in 2027 means retaining the Chairmanship of Senate Services, a strategic committee that controls the engine room of the Senate, and positioning for principal offices, for a Federal University in Kabba, a Medical University in Egbe, more CBT centres, more roads and more federal presence.
He is of the All Progressives Congress, APC — a party that is household in Kogi West, from polling unit to ward. The synergy between his outstanding representation and the APC’s dominance in the zone makes his re-election a natural collaboration. Kogi West is almost there. The yearnings and aspirations of the people for quality education, security, water, light, roads, jobs are being met by the unusual representation of a rare Senator. To toy with that collaboration in 2027 would be to return to the queue after almost reaching the table.
Senator Sunday Steve Karimi is that diamond in the rough that Kogi West searched for decades to find. He is that onion with many peels — Engineer, philanthropist, legislator, security champion, bridge builder, education investor — and every layer reveals competence. Performance don’t lie. Kogi West knows when a man is good, working. And in 2027, Kogi West will speak again, louder, with one voice: continuity, consolidation, and ranking.
By Mohammed Sani – Lokoja
DemocracyNewslineNewspaper October 9th, 2026
