In the villages, markets, and campuses across Kogi West, one name comes up repeatedly when people talk about impact: Senator Sunday Karimi. Representing Kogi West in the National Assembly, the lawmaker has built what political observers describe as rare “organic followership” – loyalty earned not through slogans, but through roads, classrooms, bridges, and direct support to women, farmers, and youths.
His impact resulted in his overwhelming victory at the recent APC Kogi West Senatorial District primaries, another opportunity the Senator believes he will consolidate on his accomplishments and right what went amiss in the first term.
It is this grassroots connection that has made Senator Karimi a household name and, by his own admission, a representative willing to step on toes in the course of service, yet asking constituents to look past any shortcomings. “In the course of service, you may step on toes,” he says. “But I appeal to the people to put behind any perceived missteps. Lessons have been learnt. I will remain a servant representative, delivering service on all fronts.”
For over a decade, the Kabba-Ilorin road was an abandoned promise. Under Senator Karimi’s push, the road came alive. He attracted personal funds, brokered partnerships with relevant ministries, including the Federal Ministry of Works, and ensured contractors returned to site. The revival is already easing movement of farm produce and connecting communities that were cut off. He has replicated that intervention across the district. The Pakuta Bridge, long a death trap for commuters and farmers, has been rebuilt. Several rural roads have received attention, reducing travel time and opening markets to traders who previously lost goods to bad roads.
If roads move people, education moves generations – and Senator Karimi has bet heavily on it. This academic session alone, over 4,000 tertiary institution students across Kogi State are on his bursary scheme with N400m splashed on the student fees.
At Titcom College, Egbe, he built a state-of-the-art CBT centre at a cost of over ₦350 million to end the stress of students traveling far for exams across the Okun speaking areas. Similar CBT centres are at advanced stages in Lokoja, Mopa, and Yagba East.
His flagship education intervention is the complete rebuilding of GSSS Koton, one of Kogi’s iconic schools, with over ₦1.3 billion invested. Today the school is described by parents and teachers as the envy of public schools in the state – new classrooms, hostels, labs, and digital learning tools.
Senator Karimi’s strongest base is among women. Through cooperative support schemes, hundreds of women in Kogi West have received grants and training to expand small businesses, from food processing to tailoring and trading. Farmers and artisans have not been left behind. In Lokoja and across the district, traders, welders, carpenters, and farm groups have benefited from equipment support and micro-grants. For a senator, direct engagement with market women and farmers is rare. For Karimi, it is routine.
Understanding that development cannot thrive without peace, the Senator facilitated the construction of a ₦750 million military forward operating base to support security agencies tackling banditry and kidnapping along Kogi West borders. Traditional rulers and local government chairmen credit the base with improving response time and community confidence.
Veteran observers of Kogi politics say it is difficult to find any representative in the current democratic dispensation whose first term matches Senator Karimi’s spread of interventions. From education to roads, security to livelihood support, the projects cut across all seven local government areas of Kogi West. His appeal is simple: collective responsibility. “All hands must be on deck,” he tells APC stakeholders.
With Kogi West naturally a predominantly APC area, he argues the district must deliver maximally for the party. Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, Kogi West has enjoyed increased appointments and infrastructure attention, and Karimi wants the district to consolidate those gains. Reason he appeals for APC stakeholders to shun divisive tendencies.
Walk through any campus in Kogi West and you will find youths who call themselves his “vanguard.” They sing his praises not just for bursaries and CBT centres, but for accessibility. Unlike the distant lawmaker stereotype, Karimi is known for taking calls, attending community meetings, and responding directly to requests. That accessibility, combined with youth-focused interventions, has created a followership that requires no political machinery to mobilize. “He is grounded in the hearts of rural dwellers,” a community leader in Yagba East noted. “Even with opposition candidates of other parties, his election is as good as a clean win.”
With eyes already on the next political cycle, Senator Karimi’s message to APC members is unity. He urges members to put aside internal differences and work together to ensure President Tinubu wins Kogi State overwhelmingly.
“Kogi West has always been APC. We must not take it for granted,” he says. “If we deliver as one, we secure more appointments, more projects, and more respect at the national level.”
Senator Karimi does not claim perfection. He admits that service can create friction. But he leans on results and relationship with the people. “Since the return of democracy, it is difficult to match this level of representation in one term,” he says. “If I have offended anyone in the process of fighting for our people, I ask for forgiveness. I remain your servant, and I will continue to deliver.”
For many in Kogi West, that humility, combined with visible projects, is why they call him “The People’s Senator.” In a political era often criticized for distance between leaders and led, Senator Sunday Karimi’s grassroots appeal offers a different model: show up, deliver, and stay close to the people. As the Kabba-Ilorin road is set to wear new asphalt and students in Egbe, Koton, Mopa, and Lokoja sit for exams in modern CBT halls, the message from the grassroots is clear – Kogi West has found a representative who understands that true power lies with the people.
– Ibrahim Gimba writes from Lokoja.
