In the annals of Kogi West Senatorial District, few names have evoked as much passion, gratitude, and political defiance as that of Senator Sunday Karimi. As the 2027 senatorial election approaches, a well-orchestrated but cowardly campaign is being waged from the shadows of Lokoja’s political elite to silence the loudest voice from Okunland. The mission is clear: to impose a puppet on Kogi West, to replace a performer with a pliant errand boy, and to extinguish the only flame of resistance against the political colonization that has held our people down for decades.
We reject this plot in its entirety. Senator Sunday Karimi has earned a second term through sweat, and transformative representation. His multi-million scholarship intervention, his provision of transformers and potable water across the district, his bridge construction revolution in Kiri land and beyond, his legislative advocacy and bills and motion that meet his people at their very point of need, his security initiative that resulted in his Army Forward Base construction In Egbe, and most importantly, his fearless declaration that an Okun son must govern Kogi State in 2027—these are the very reasons the forces of darkness want him gone. They do not hate Karimi; they hate what he represents: a free Okun voice that cannot be bought, silenced, or intimidated.
A Track Record of Tangible Transformation
Let us begin with the facts, for propaganda withers when exposed to the light of verifiable achievement. Senator Karimi’s first term has been nothing short of a development renaissance for Kogi West.
In the realm of education, Karimi has demonstrated an uncommon commitment to the future of our children. Within less than three years, he has relaunched a staggering over N300 million bursary scheme benefiting approximately 3,000 students in public tertiary institutions, with each receiving N100,000 to ease their financial burden. This followed an initial N100 million bursary programme in 2024 that supported 1,000 students across the senatorial district. When we speak of investing in human capital, this is what it looks like—not empty promises, but cash grants reaching the palms of struggling students.
Beyond bursaries, Karimi facilitated the construction of a N160 million Computer-Based Test centre, a digital infrastructure project that will serve generations of examination candidates. secondary schools across Kabba/Bunu, Ijumu, Yagba East, Yagba West, and other local government areas have benefited from comprehensive renovation and infrastructure upgrades. This is not constituency project padding; this is legacy building.
On water provision—a basic necessity that previous representatives treated as an afterthought—Karimi has delivered with military precision. He has facilitated the construction of 90 solar-powered boreholes and the rehabilitation of approximately 80 previously non-functional water schemes, restoring access to potable water for thousands of households. His footprint in this regard covers all 85 electoral wards in Kogi West, with at least one solar motorised borehole installed or refurbished in each ward within his first two years in office. When a child in a remote village drinks clean water for the first time in years, that is Karimi’s legacy.
On power supply—the bane of small businesses and domestic life—Karimi has provided 500KVA and 300KVA electricity transformers across the seven local government areas. Over 500 communities have received transformers and solar-powered streetlights, bringing light where darkness once reigned.
And on roads, perhaps the most visceral marker of government presence, Karimi has distinguished himself in unprecedented fashion. When President Bola Tinubu permitted each senator a capital project of N2 billion in the national appropriation, Karimi could have followed the path of his colleagues—fragmenting the sum into small, unchallenging projects with ample room for personal advantage. He chose otherwise. Karimi not only channeled his statutory N2 billion to augment the funding of the critical Kabba-Ilorin Federal Road, he added an additional N1 billion from his special intervention fund. This singular act of selflessness moved the Minister of Works to appropriate an additional N6 billion for the road in the 2025 Appropriation Act. The once-abandoned highway, a death trap and economic strangler of Okun communities, is now receiving the attention it has deserved for decades.
The Voice That Cannot Be Silenced
But infrastructure, impressive as it is, is not the sole measure of representation. The people of Kogi West appreciate transformers and boreholes, but what we cherish even more is a senator who speaks our mind without trembling before the gods of political patronage.
Senator Karimi has been an unrepentant advocate of good governance and the devolution of power to the grassroots. He has consistently criticised state government dominance over Local Government funds, correctly identifying it as a tool for impoverishing the people at the grassroots. This stance, as principled as it is popular, has pitched him against the political elites in power. His sin? Telling the truth to power.
The apex of this courageous defiance came at the 2025 Kabba Day cultural celebration. Before a massive crowd of Okun sons and daughters, Karimi did what no elected representative from Kogi West had dared to do in the 34-year history of the state. He declared, without equivocation, that Okunland would produce the governor of Kogi State in 2027
He stated explicitly: “We are engaging with our people in the East, and they are collaborating with us. The East is prepared to support us, and we must hijack leadership.” At that same event, he backed his words with action, donating N20 million on the spot and pledging to mobilize an additional N30 million, making his total community donation N50 million.
Let us be clear about the historical context. Since the creation of Kogi State, no native of Kogi West has ever been elected governor. In the old Kwara State, Alhaji Adamu Attah (an Ebira) served as governor between 1979 and 1983. Since 1999, Kogi East has produced three elected governors—Abubakar Audu, Ibrahim Idris, and Idris Wada—monopolizing power for 16 unbroken years. Then, from 2015 to 2023, Yahaya Bello (Kogi Central) ruled for eight years and handpicked his successor, Ahmed Ododo, from the same central district, with a calculated plan to retain power in Ebira hands until at least 2031.
By 2027, the Igala ethnicity in Kogi East would have held the governorship for 18 years, while the Ebiras would have occupied the office for 16 years(including the 4years in Second Republic in old Kwara). The Okun people, the third leg of Kogi’s sociopolitical tripod, have been reduced to spectators in their own state, offered nothing but the ceremonial and powerless position of Deputy Governor only one occasions—a toothless “spare tyre” that delivers nothing to the people.
When Karimi stood at Kabba Day 2025 and declared that this injustice must end, he did not speak for himself. He spoke for every Okun man and woman who has watched other ethnic groups take their turn while Okun leaders begged for crumbs. He spoke for the market woman in Lokoja, the teacher in Isanlu, the farmer in Egbe, and the student in Kabba. That speech was not insurrection; it was the long-overdue articulation of a people’s legitimate aspiration.
Resisting Political Colonization and Imposition
And precisely because Karimi has become the voice of Okun liberation, the political “masters” who have long treated Kogi West as a conquered territory have marked him for destruction.
These are the same forces responsible for the removal of senators Dino Melaye and Smart Adeyemi. When Melaye, despite his flaws, became too independent or inconvenient, the machinery of political engineering was deployed to unseat him. When Adeyemi outlived his usefulness, he was discarded like a spent cartridge. The pattern is unmistakable: Kogi West is not allowed to choose its own leaders; leaders are chosen for Kogi West by a cabal that sits far from Okunland, in the private mansions of godfathers.
Today, that same machinery is whirring again. According to reports, the powers that be have been openly shopping for a replacement for Karimi for two years, narrowing down on old political foes who would serve as instruments to bring down the people’s senator. Their calculation is simple: Kogi West does not need a voice at the state or national level. They prefer a quiet, compliant representative who will collect his salary, approve whatever is sent to the Senate, and never ask why Okun people continue to be excluded from the governorship.
They are considering a former one-term House of Representatives member or an over-circulated former senator to challenge Karimi. Their plan, should it fail to produce a direct challenger, is to raise as many sons of Okun as possible to join the senatorial race, splitting the vote and paving the way for an opportunist from Lokoja/Kogi Federal Constituency to emerge as the APC flagbearer or winner. This would effectively cut short Yagba’s rightful two-term hold on the Senate seat—a position that Yagba federal constituency, after being excluded for 16 years, only just secured in 2023.
This is political colonization in its purest form. And Senator Karimi has raised a resistant voice against it. He has said, and we echo him loudly: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
The Call for Cultural Preservation and Political Sovereignty
The Okun people are Yoruba. We are distinct in language and culture from our Ebira and Igala compatriots, but we have never used that distinction as a weapon. We have contributed loyally to Kogi State’s development. We have voted in every election, paid our taxes, and sent our brightest to serve the state. Yet when it comes to the ultimate prize of governance, we are told to wait—always wait.
A group of Okun leaders, the Okun Leaders League, recently issued a powerful statement that deserves quoting at length:
“Our numbers and support have been leveraged in the past to raise governors in Kogi State. Since the unbroken run of democratic rule in 1999, Kogi State has produced five governors, and not one has been from Okunland. To borrow from the evergreen lyrics of the iconic reggae artist Bob Marley, ‘we’ve been trampled upon for far too long.’ Okun people reject any attempt to insult and patronize us with the position of Deputy Governor.”
This is the spirit that Senator Karimi has awakened. And it is precisely this spirit that the political colonizers want to crush before 2027. They know that a Karimi re-election in 2027 would amplify his voice and strengthen his platform to push for the governorship in the same year. They know that a Karimi in the Senate is a Karimi who can mobilize, fundraise, and build the alliances necessary to break the governorship jinx. Therefore, they must remove him before he becomes unstoppable.
A Sovereign Decision for Kogi West
We are not naive. We understand that power is not given; it is taken. We understand that godfathers will scheme, money will change hands, and desperate incumbents will deploy state apparatus to punish those who refuse to bend their knees. But we also understand that the people of Kogi West are awake.
We have seen Karimi’s transformers. We have drunk from his boreholes. Our children have cashed his bursary cheques. Our women have grown their businesses with his N100 million empowerment fund. We have watched him stand on the floor of the Senate and sponsor over 12 bills and 15 motions, including amendments to the CBN Act to prohibit the use of foreign currency for domestic transactions and a bill to allow states to operate their own police forces. We have seen him facilitate a military Forward Operating Base in Egbe to combat the banditry that has terrorized our communities.
We have also heard him speak truth to power and the godfathers. And for all of this, we are grateful.
But let us be clear about the final point. This article is not merely an argument for Senator Sunday Karimi’s second term. It is an argument for the sovereignty of Kogi West people to choose their own destiny. Even if Karimi were not to have a second term—a prospect we reject entirely—that decision must be left for the people of Kogi West to make, not imposed upon them by political masters from outside our land.
We will not be colonized. We will not be intimidated. We will not be bribed into silence. The era of sending political errand boys to Abuja to rubber-stamp the impoverishment of Okunland is over. Senator Sunday Karimi has shown us what representation looks like, and we will not accept anything less.
In 2027, Kogi West will speak with one voice. And that voice will say: Karimi, go back to the Senate. And after that, Okun, take the governorship.
Enough is enough!!!
– Chief Olorunsuwa Elijah Ola, a social commentator, a political right advocate and the Executive Director of Okun Renaissance Initiative, writes from Oke-Offin Bunu.
