By Segun Fagbemi
The emerging conversation over the future of the Kogi West Senate should not be reduced to personalities. It is fundamentally a question of political equity, continuity and whether the understandings we defend when they are convenient still mean something when political circumstances change. Senator Sunday Karimi may be the current occupant of the seat, but the principle that produced his emergence in 2023 was bigger than one man. It was the recognition that, after twenty-four years of waiting, Yagba deserved its turn.
Since the return to democratic government in 1999, Kogi West’s senatorial history has reflected an obvious imbalance. Sen. Tunde Ogbeha represented the Lokoja/Kogi axis from 1999 to 2007. Thereafter came sixteen years in which the Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu axis produced Sen. Smart Adeyemi and Sen. Dino Melaye. Throughout those twenty-four years, Yagba waited. It was only in 2023, with the election of Sen.Sunday Karimi, that the Senate finally moved to the Yagba axis.
That history cannot become irrelevant simply because political calculations have changed. If there are legitimate reasons why Karimi should not continue, those arguments should be heard. But Karimi is an individual; Yagba is a people. The political future of an entire axis cannot be permanently attached to the fortunes of one politician. If the argument is that it should no longer be Karimi, the answer cannot automatically become that it should no longer be Yagba.
That is precisely where the candidature of Muyiwa Fatosa of Yagba East becomes relevant.
The choice before Kogi West does not have to be between retaining the incumbent and terminating Yagba’s turn. There is another proposition, preserve the principle of equity while renewing the leadership representing it. If not Karimi, why not Muyiwa Fatosa? Why should changing the candidate require changing the axis?
Fatosa offers that bridge between continuity and renewal. His aspiration allows Kogi West to preserve the equity achieved in 2023 while considering a different generation, professional background and approach to representation. The argument is not that Yagba should retain the Senate regardless of competence nor that anybody should be handed a mandate merely because of where he comes from. Yagba must present someone capable of earning votes across Lokoja, Kogi/Koton Karfe, Kabba-Bunu, Ijumu, Mopa-Muro, Yagba East and Yagba West.
That distinction matters. Equity should determine where the opportunity fairly belongs, competence should determine who deserves the mandate.
Muyiwa Fatosa must therefore be judged not merely as a Yagba candidate but on the proposition he presents to the entire district a new generation of representation focused on economic opportunity, infrastructure, technology and the digital economy, agriculture, education, healthcare and stronger federal attention for Kogi West. His roots may be in Yagba East, but the responsibility he seeks extends to every community in Kogi West.
There is also a broader political consequence to abandoning the Yagba arrangement prematurely. Political equity survives because communities trust that sacrifice will eventually be reciprocated. The people of other parts of Kogi West supported the movement of the Senate to Yagba in 2023. That gesture strengthened the idea that although we come from different federal constituencies and local governments, Kogi West remains one political family. Returning the seat elsewhere after only four years would raise an obvious question, what exactly did Yagba wait twenty-four years for?
Four years cannot reasonably settle a twenty-four-year wait.
This is not an argument against Ijumu, Kabba-Bunu, Lokoja or Kogi/Koton Karfe. Indeed, those communities are indispensable to any serious candidate seeking to represent Kogi West. It is instead an argument that fairness must mean the same thing regardless of whose ambition is on the table. Today, Yagba asks that an understanding be respected. Tomorrow, another part of Kogi West may rely upon precisely the same principle.
Neither should the discussion descend into entitlement. Nobody owns the Kogi West Senate seat. Ultimately, sovereignty belongs to the electorate. Every constitutionally qualified person has the right to contest and voters retain the absolute right to decide. But democracy does not prohibit political communities from considering history and equity. Indeed, stable democracies frequently depend upon accommodation, inclusion and the willingness of different groups to recognise one another’s legitimate aspirations.
The more strategic question for Kogi West, therefore, is not simply who replaces whom? It is what kind of representation comes next?
Our district needs representation capable of transcending the old politics of access and personal advancement. The farmer displaced by insecurity does not care about political titles. The unemployed graduate wants opportunity. Our communities need roads, electricity, healthcare and functioning schools. Women running small businesses need access to markets and capital. Young people need pathways into technology, the creative economy and remote work. Lokoja deserves representation commensurate with its strategic importance as a state capital, while our rural communities deserve to feel the presence of the federation.
That is the standard against which every aspirant, including Muyiwa Fatosa, should be measured.
The argument for Fatosa should therefore never simply be, “he is from Yagba.” It should be: here is an opportunity to respect Yagba’s turn while introducing a different generation of leadership capable of building a broader Kogi West coalition. Geography creates the moment, capacity must justify the choice.
There is something politically significant about that proposition. Kogi West does not have to choose between experience and renewal or between equity and competence. We can preserve an established balance while demanding more from the person who benefits from it.
If Sen. Karimi remains the preferred choice of the people, his record will speak for him. But if the political conversation has genuinely moved towards an alternative, then Yagba must not disappear from that conversation simply because the name has changed. If not Karimi, then let us seriously consider Muyiwa Fatosa.
Not because the Senate belongs to him. It does Not because Yagba alone determines the Senator. It does not.
But because Yagba waited twenty-four years for its turn and changing the candidate should never become an excuse for prematurely changing the principle.
Kogi West can choose renewal without abandoning equity. It can produce a new face without reopening an old imbalance. It can respect yesterday’s understanding while preparing for tomorrow’s challenges.
That is the case for Muyiwa Fatosa.
If not Karimi, why not Muyiwa Fatosa?
Yagba’s turn is not over.
– Segun Fagbemi writes from Lokoja.
