By Adam Yusuf
Elections in Nigeria are not won by noise. They are won by a candidate who combines competence, a record, a coalition and a clear case to the voter. On each of these tests, Distinguished Senator Sunday Steve Karimi (DSSK) stands on firm ground. This analysis sets out who he is, what he has built, and why the Kogi Equity Alliance believes he is the strongest candidate in Kogi West.
THE MAN: ROOTED IN EGBE, TRAINED AS AN ENGINEER
Sunday Steve Karimi was born on 10 March 1962 in Egbe, Yagba West Local Government Area of Kogi State. He grew up there and attended primary school in Egbe, then Titcombe College, Egbe, the mission-founded school that has shaped generations of Kogi West leaders.
He went on to Kwara State College of Technology, Ilorin, the institution now known as Kwara State Polytechnic, where he studied engineering and earned a distinction.
That training matters. An engineer is taught to ask what is broken, why it is broken, and what it will take to fix it. His career before politics reflects that discipline. He taught Further Mathematics at African Secondary School, Isanlu, in Yagba East. He then worked for about nine years as an engineer at the Defence Industries Company of Nigeria (DICON). He later founded Atlantic Drilling Fluids Services Limited, an indigenous engineering firm that, according to his official biography, carried out water projects for federal and state governments.
A teacher, an engineer, an employer and a builder: that is a profile of someone who has met payrolls, delivered contracts and answered to results. It is the opposite of a politician who learnt governance from the sidelines.
THE LEGISLATOR: A PROVEN VOTE-GETTER
His political career is a record of winning. He was elected to the House of Representatives for the Yagba East/Yagba West/Mopamuro Federal Constituency in 2011 and returned in 2015. His official website states he was the first lawmaker from that constituency to be re-elected. A constituency does not hand a second term to a legislator it feels has failed it.
In February 2023, he moved up to the Senate to represent Kogi West. A Pulse Nigeria profile reports that he won about 70,000 votes against about 52,000 for his closest rival, carrying five of the seven councils in the district. The direction is plain: a clear win across most of the district, not a narrow one.
In the Tenth Senate he chairs the Committee on Senate Services. His official record lists bills on the Central Bank, dishonoured cheques, the anti-corruption commission and the Penal Code, and motions on federal roads, refinery maintenance, oil theft and accountability on the fuel subsidy and the naira redesign. This is a legislator who engages with national questions as well as local ones.
THE RECORD: PROOF THE VOTER CAN SEE
A candidate’s strongest argument is what voters can point to in their own communities.
Education. A bursary scheme that has grown every year: ₦100m in 2024, ₦300m in 2025 for 3,000 students at ₦100,000 each across all three senatorial districts, and a third ₦300m edition now under way for 2026. Classroom blocks at St. Barnabas, Odo-Ape and at Iluke. A science secondary school at Koton-Karfe worth over ₦1bn. A CBT centre in Yagba. ₦10m to the Anglican Church Nursing School, Iyara.
Power and water. Transformers delivered to Sarki Noma, Mount Patti, Obajana, Agbadu and now Odo-Egbe, which had been without electricity for over six months. Solar streetlights in Lokoja and Koton-Karfe. Solar-powered boreholes and rehabilitated water points across the district. This is where his engineering background shows.
Roads. About ₦2bn attracted for the Kabba-Egbe road, plus ₦6bn to bring the contractor back after years of abandonment. The Pakuta Bridge reconstruction. In June 2026, the Federal Executive Council approved ₦104bn for sections of the Obajana-Kabba-Isanlu-Egbe-Omu Aran-Ilorin corridor and ₦24.7bn for Kabba-Ifaki-Ado Ekiti. These are approvals, and the voters will rightly watch for delivery.
Health and security. A cottage hospital built and awaiting equipping and handover. By his own account, a Forward Operating Base at the Kogi-Kwara border and an Army base at Egbe.
Livelihoods. 50 cooperatives empowered in Kabba and Bunu-Ijumu, and buses launched to cut the cost of transport.
THE CASE FOR A DECISIVE WIN
First, incumbency with substance. A sitting Senator who has delivered across sectors starts with what challengers can only promise: a name on real projects.
Second, a proven electoral base. He has won in a constituency and then in a larger district, and the 2023 result suggests a broad coalition.
Third, the right alliance. He leads the Win With Tinubu/Shettima effort in Kogi State. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reforms and the federal road approvals for Kogi West give the district a reason to stay aligned with Abuja.
Fourth, the equity argument. Kogi West has never produced the Governor since the state was created in 1991. That fact shapes how voters think about who speaks for them in the Senate and in Abuja.
Fifth, presence. Town halls in all three Kogi West federal constituencies show a Senator who goes to the people rather than waiting for them.
Sixth, composure. When challenged in court, he said, “My defence is solid,” and “the people will decide this election, not all this time-wasting thing in the court.” We respect the court, and the judgment is the court’s to give. But a candidate who keeps campaigning while the case runs is a candidate who trusts his people.
OUR CALL TO KOGI WEST
Stay calm and stay united. Check your PVC. Bring one person along. Vote for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Sunday Steve Karimi.
KARIMI LEKAN SI!
– Hon. Adams Yusuf
Convener, Kogi Equity Alliance
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