By Musa Bakare.
As the race toward 2027 gains momentum, Senator Sunday Karimi has thrown down a political gauntlet that is already echoing across Kogi State: the era of exclusion must end, and the next governor must emerge from Kogi West.
Speaking at the 2025 Kabba Day celebration, held fittingly in Kabba, the headquarters of Kogi West Senatorial District, the Senator addressed his constituents with clarity and conviction. Weeks earlier, at a high level stakeholders’ meeting of the All Progressives Congress in Lokoja,the Progressive Forum, he again struck the same chord, leaving no room for diplomatic ambiguity. His tone was unmistakable: firm, urgent, and sincere. He warned that any internal arrangement sidelining Kogi West in the coming governorship election would amount to political injustice and strategic self-sabotage.
For Senator Karimi, fairness in politics is not charity, it is survival. A ruling party that allows one bloc to monopolize power risks breeding resentment, weakening grassroots enthusiasm, and handing opponents a weapon they could never forge on their own.
“We must build a party where every district sees itself in leadership. Domination by one axis is not strength, it is the seed of division,” he declared.
The presence of several influential figures from across Kogi State underscored the seriousness of the unfolding political realignment. Their consensus was clear: inclusion is non negotiable if victory is the goal.
If Senator Karimi’s words lit the spark, stakeholders from Kogi West, men and women, young and old, political leaders and elders are now fanning it into a blaze. Leaders from the district are speaking with uncommon unity, insisting that 2027 is not merely another election cycle, but a historic correction.
For decades, they argue, Kogi West has played the loyal foot soldier, delivering votes, mobilizing support, and defending party mandates. Yet when it comes to sharing the ultimate prize, the West is repeatedly asked to wait. This time, they insist, waiting is over.
Their rallying point is Rt. Hon. James Abiodun Faleke, whom they present as a credible, experienced, and nationally connected figure capable of consolidating party strength while restoring rotational balance. His name surfaced repeatedly in deliberations across Kogi state, each mention met with nods of agreement and chants of support.
Stakeholders frame his potential emergence not as personal ambition, but as collective destiny, the embodiment of a district’s long suppressed aspiration to lead the state.
Constituents from Kogi West remain focused on consolidating national alliances and aligning with broader political currents, without neglecting local dynamics. Politics, after all, is local before it is national, and Kogi’s grassroots arithmetic has a long memory.
What began as Senatorial district advocacy is fast becoming a structural argument: in a heterogeneous state like Kogi, power rotation is the glue that holds diverse blocks together. Unity, negotiated through fairness, often endures.
In this light, Senator Karimi’s intervention serves as both warning and roadmap for the ruling APC. It signals that reconciliation, zoning balance, and an inclusive ticket may determine whether the party marches into 2027 as a disciplined army or a divided house.
Senator Karimi’s call for equity and fairness must be supported and intensified by the APC and citizens across Kogi State, with alliances forged on the principles of equity and inclusion.
One thing is certain: the struggle for the party ticket will not be a quiet affair. It is shaping up to be a defining contest of principle versus precedent, equity versus dominance, and inclusion versus control.
For stakeholders in Kogi West, the verdict is already written in their resolve: 2027 must not repeat history, it must correct it. And if political momentum continues at this pace, the call amplified by Senator Karimi may soon evolve from a demand into a declaration.
The message now reverberating across the district and gaining widespread support across the state is blunt, bold, and unyielding: Power must rotate, justice must prevail, and this time, Kogi West must lead.
– Musa Asiru Bakare, Foundational member of the APC and political analyst, writes from Lokoja, Kogi State.
