Chief Elijah Ola Olorunsuwa, Executive Director of the Okun Renaissance Initiative (ORI) and a prominent voice in Okunland’s socio-political circles, used his address at a Bunu-wide endorsement gathering here on Saturday to throw his weight behind the re-election bids of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Sunday Karimi, while renewing calls for the Kogi governorship to be zoned to an Okun indigene in 2027.
Speaking before traditional rulers, party stakeholders, youth leaders and residents drawn from across the Bunu axis, Chief Olorunsuwa framed the endorsement as both a vote of confidence in the current federal and legislative leadership and a strategic step toward long-overdue representation for the Okun people at the state’s highest office.
He commended President Tinubu’s economic reforms and infrastructural interventions in Kogi State, arguing that the dividends of the administration’s policies justified continued support ahead of the 2027 presidential contest. He similarly praised Senator Karimi’s tenure representing Kogi West in the Senate, describing his advocacy for the district as consistent and results-driven.
Turning to the state’s political future, Chief Olorunsuwa was emphatic that equity demanded the Kogi governorship move to Kogi West in 2027, asserting that the Okun people — long active in the state’s political coalitions but yet to produce a governor — had earned the right to lead. He called on Bunu stakeholders and the wider Okun community to close ranks behind that ambition, describing unity among the six Okun-speaking local government areas as the only path to actualizing it.
The event, organized as a stakeholders’ endorsement forum in the Bunu area, drew notable attendance from local political figures and community leaders, several of whom echoed Chief Olorunsuwa’s call for zoning equity as the 2027 general elections approach.
