By Sola Bamidele
It is no longer news that since return to democracy in 1999, Yagba Federal Constituency, one of the three federal constituencies in Kogi West Senatorial District had been excluded from the rotation of the Senate seat of the zone until 2023, when miraculously Senator Karimi Sunday Steve from Yagba West Council, Yagba Federal Constituency was elected on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC)
Dynamics of Rotation within Kogi West Senatorial District
Between 1999 and 2007, ex-Military Administrator of Edo and Akwa Ibom States, Senator Tunde Ogbeha from Kogi Lokoja/Kotonkarfe Federal Constituency represented Kogi West serving two terms of eight years between 1999 and 2007. He honourably bowed out to allow Kabba/Bunnu/Ijumu Federal Constituency have their turn in the Senate. This led to Senator Smart Adeyemi’s emergence in 2007, as Yagba elites agreed that it was Kabba/Bunu Ijumu’s turn to produce the Senate even to the detriment of an illustrous Yagba son, Hon. T. J Faniyi who was then in the race.
Unfortunately, rather than honouring the convention laid down by his predecessor, Smart Adeyemi unsuccessfully attempted re-election for a third term. This led to the victory of Senator Dino Melaye, a felow Ijumu man in 2015, and the subsequent interchange of the occupation of the seat between Melaye and Adeyemi, four years after.
To cut the long story short, Kabba/Bunu/ Ijumu held the Kogi West Senate seat for 16 years to the exclusion of Yagba and in disregard for time tested convention of rotation.
By 2023, the agitation for Yagba producing the Senate hit the high heavens, but in defiance to the yearnings of the majority, the People’s Democratic Party fielded T.J Yusuf from Kabba as Senatorial Flagbearer, causing PDP a collasal loss at the 2023 National Assembly and Presidential Election, especially that a strong personality and time tested legislator like Hon. Sunday Steve Karimi was the flagbearer of the APC.
Summary of incumbent’s tenure
Since the assumption of Office, Karimi has endeared himself to the heart of the ruling elites in the Senate and has often spoken the minds of his constituents.
He envisioned that the insecurity in the Northern part of the country was creeping into Kogi West Senatorial District and immediately committed his personal resources worth hundreds of millions to construct, equip, furnish and provide two brand new operational vehicles for the Nigerian Army when he established the Nigerian Army Forward Operation Base in Egbe.
In addition, Karimi prioritised education by launching an annual bursary for constituents. In 2023, he dolled out N100m to 1000 indigenes of Kogi West who benefited N 100,000.00 each. As a strong aposltle of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, in 2025 he extended the Bursary programme to Kogi East and Kogi Central Senatorial Districts in order to help propagate the Renewed Hope message of Mr President across Kogi State. According to the senator’s media team, the final list of beneficiaries for the programme will soon be out for immediate disbursement. His commitment to education also includes th construction of classroom blocks in several communities in Kogi West Senatorial District such as in Odo Ape, Igbaruku, Ike Bunnu, Kabba, etcetera. In Kotonkarfe, Senator Karimi transformed a Secondary School to international standard by attracting Federal Government investment worth over a billion Naira.
Karimi has donated several Tranformers to Rural Communities, he has installed Solar Street lights in many rural areas and has his footprint in the 85 electoral wards in Kogi West, having installed and refurbished at least one solar motorised borehole in each of the wards in the seven local government areas within his first two years in office.
No festive period passed without seven trailer loads of rice, hitting the grassroots courtesy of the Senator, and he regularly intervenes in community development efforts by donating handsomely as the occasion demands.
In a rare sacrifice for the abandoned Kabba-Mopa-Isanlu-Egbe-Ilorin Road, in 2025, President Tinubu permitted each Senator to a Capital Project of N2bn in the nation’s Appropriation Act and instead of Senator Karimi to channel the N2bn into small projects, with prospects of pecuniary advantage, he not only ensured his statutory N2bn was appropriated to augment the funding of Kabba-Ilorin Federal Road, he added additional N1bn as his special intervention for the road. An act that moved the Minister of Works to appropriate additional N6Bbn for the road in 2025 Approproation Act. As soon as the Federal Ministry of Works releases funds for 2025 Appropropriation, it is certain that the once abandoned highway will be repaired for the benefit of Kogites and other road users. In addition, Mr President has also approved alternative funding for the road, all due to the determimination of Senator Karimi.
Oversight Functions
The most important and crucial part of Senator Karimi’s oversight functions are his legislative instruments on the floor of the Senate, which are in excess of 12 Bills and 15 Motions.
Karimi commenced
representation in the Upper Chamber with a motion to investigate the various turnaround maintenance contracts of Nigerian Refineries since 1999. He sponsored a Bill to amend the CBN Act to prohibit use of foreign currency in domestic transactions in a bid to restore the value of the naira and made significant contributions to Electoral Act.
Frustrated about the incessant insecurity, he sponsored a Bill to allow States that are willing and financially stable to operate a sub national police to establish State Police. He also sponsored amendments to the Constitution to ensure Local Government autonomy in tandem with the recent Supreme Court judgment.
The Voice of the Voiceless
Karimi is an unrepentant advocate of good governance and devolution of power and resources to the grassroots. He has criticised State Government dominance over Local Government Funds as it is a tool of impoverishing the people at the grassroots. This has pitched him against the political elites in Lugard House.
Senator Karimi’s sins attained a crescendo when he openly declared that it was the turn of Kogi West to produce Governor in 2027 since the Senatorial District has not been opportune to produce a Governor in Kogi State since its creation over 34 years ago.
The truth is, whether in the old Kwara or Kogi State, no native of Kogi West has ever been elected Governor. In old Kwara, Alhaji Adamu Attah, an Ebira, served as a Governor of Kwara State between 1979 and 1983.
Since 1999, when Kogi State was created, Kogi East has produced three elected Governors- Late Alhaji Abubakar Audu, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris and Captain Idirs Wada monopolising power for 16 unbroken years to the exclusion of other Districts.
In unusual circumstances, in 2015, Alhaji Yahya Adoza Bello from Agaza/ Ahachi ward 7 Okene became the Governor of Kogi State and ruled for eight years. In 2023 he appointed his brother from Upogoro Ward in the same Okene Local Government as his successor and is determined to ensure he rules Kogi State for another eight years, estimated to end in 2031, with concrete plans to retain power in Kogi Central or clandestinely handover to Ebiras who are domiciled in another Senatorial District.
Karimi’s major offence is voicing the aspirations of his people as follows:
(a) That Kogi West should be considered in the Gubernatorial seat of Kogi State;
(b) That local governments should be given full financial autonomy so that poverty and insecurity at the grassroots can be wiped out.
The political elites at Lugard House are angerred at the effornty and boldness of Karimi to speak the mind of his constituents and he has abelled him a “betrayer” and “arrogant ” and that he would be thought a lesson in the forthcoming National Assembly Election. And, for two years, the powers that be at Lugard House have desperately and openly shopped for a replacement for him, narrowing down to old political foes as instruments to bring down the people’s Karimi.
It is the calculation of Lugard House and its Emperor that any other person other than Sunday Karimi is best to represent the Senatorial District. Because, according to them, Kogi West does not need a “voice” at the State or national level.
They prefer a former one term Reps member Hon. Sam Aro or an over circulated Senator Smart Adeyemi to challenge him. There are also indication that the rulers at Lugard House have vowed to raise as many sons of Yagba and Okun as possible to join the ring for the Senate in 2027, to pave the way for an opportunist from Lokoja/Kogi Federal Constituency to emerge as the APC Flagbearer or winner of the 2027 Senate Election in Kogi West Senatorial District, thereby cutting short the eight-year/ two-term of Yagba at the Senate.
Caution
It will be unwise for Yagba to allow outsiders who have failed in their own senatorial elections or who are unable to elect a Senator for themselves to choose a Senator for Kogi West. Yagba should not allow outsiders to use divide and rule to perpetuate themselves in power simply to subdue Yagba. In the words of Hubert Ogunde, ‘Yoruba ronu’. My advice, Yagba ronu ooo!
Sola Bamidele writes from Abuja.
