Sunday Karimi

Sunday Steve Karimi is a Nigerian politician and senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Kogi State. Karimi is the Chairman of the Committee on Senate Services. From 2011 to 2019, Karimi was the member representing Yagba East/Yagba West/Mopamuro constituency in the House of Representatives. Quotes I have been given the opportunity to represent the good people of Kogi West in the Senate. It is not because I am the best or I’m the least. It is just a privilege and the grace of God. My belief in service is that when we have the opportunity, we should give it our best, and nobody knows it all. Interview response to the question 'What are you doing about the deplorable conditions of federal roads in Kogi West? Meetings like this afford me the opportunity to gain one or two things to help me serve the people better. I hope this type of meeting will be held at regular intervals. I am also open to more engagement with other groups and stakeholders as long as it is about us brainstorming on issues relating to improving on the quality of representation. Interview response to the question 'What are you doing about the deplorable conditions of federal roads in Kogi West? So, I thank you for the issues you have raised. I also want to make the point and I want to report to you that Hon Leke Abejide (representative of Yagba Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives) and myself work in collaboration and it is for the overall good of our people, the era of politics, elections and bickering, we have put it behind us. Interview response to the question 'What are you doing about the deplorable conditions of federal roads in Kogi West? First of all, I want to talk about our roads. The house that you are seeing next to mine, that’s the house of the Honourable Minister of Works, His Excellency Dave Umahi. Don’t forget that he was in the senate prior to his appointment as Minister of Works. He moved in here just a few weeks after our inauguration in June. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads….' So, we were colleagues in the senate and we are direct neighbours. As senators, that’s before he became Minister, I had the opportunity of travelling with him to his state on three different occasions, we went round and he showed me some of his achievements when he was governor of Ebonyi. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads…' And I have worried him too much about this issue of our federal roads in Okunland, including Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin road. But one thing i want us to understand is that when it comes to road infrastructure, Nigeria has a big problem. Nigeria has an estimated 193,200km of tarred roads in the country, out of which 34,000 kilometres are designated as Federal Roads linking one State to another, including the Federal Capital Territory. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads…' Over 80 per cent of these federal highways or inter-state roads are in very deplorable conditions. Yes, you get to hear about contracts being awarded here and there almost everyday, but what is the quantum of money available to execute such contracts. You can hardly get a federal contract that can attract up to N20 billion a year because they are just everywhere, so they will just put little money here, little money there, and the money they are putting cannot do much. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads…' That is why you see roads like East-West road, Ilorin-Ogbomosho-Oyo road, have been there for so many years uncompleted. Even the stretch between Ibadan-Lagos road has gone bad. That is the problem we have in this country. In our case, the Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin road was awarded to CGC in 2014. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads…' The first phase was to run between Kabba and Ejiba, then the second phase from Ilorin to Ejiba. When Dr Bukola Saraki came in as Senate President, he influenced the award of the contract for the second phase. Despite that he was senate president between 2015 and 2019, he was unable to attract funding to execute that road project. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads…' That is the problem and that problem is there up till today. So, when we sat down with the Hon Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, the minister said, ‘Senator Karimi, let’s look at the possibility of tax credit scheme to fix that your road’. As at that time, Dangote Group was being considered for that of Kabba-Omuo road. That one has been sealed. Coming to Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin road, we thought of it that Dangote Group might not be interested because of the presence of Mangal Cement. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads…' Hon Leke Abejide and I got across to the Mangal Cement Company. The managing director of the company, Engr. Fahad Mangal, myself and the minister met. Hon Leke Abejide at the time was out of the country. Mangal came with his son. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads…' During the meeting, the minister urged Mangal to take over the construction of that road on tax credit. That was around May, this year; if I am the media attention seeking type, that meeting would have been blown out of proportion in the social media. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads…' Of course, I didn’t see that as an achievement until something tangible has been achieved on that road. Mangal said he had no such cashflow yet at the moment to be able to shoulder such a burden. That, if he’s to take that road headlong from Ilu-Hagba to Ilorin (we looked at the distance, they said it was about 260 plus kilometres) for that distance to be covered by concrete construction, it is going to cost him about N1bn per kilometre. Mangal said there’s no way that he’s going to be able to that, immediately. The Minister now said, ‘Okay, if you cannot do that now, do some bad portions’. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads…' He promised to come back to us. He explained that they were planning to take-off (cement production) by July, but that at take-off, he has a tax holiday for two years. So, we are still talking, I still called his son lately. The repair works you see on that road, which started last November, was the effort of the Minister, a result of our constant lobbying. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads…' But now he said he doesn’t want to approach it that way, that it is a subsisting contract. I pulled out Senator Ashiru Oyelola Yisa and Senator Oyewumi kamorudeen Olalere (Osun West Senatorial District), that we should go and see the minister. I did that knowing if the three of us go there together, it will carry more weight. Interview response to the question 'Let’s specifically examine the roads…' In line with the concerted efforts to address the food crisis in the country, on Tuesday, July 9, I moved the motion on the floor of the senate calling on the federal government to distribute fertilisers to farmers in all the 36 states. Interview response to the question ' What about agriculture and the power outage?' The motion was titled “Urgent Need to Address Food Insecurity and Market Exploitation of Consumables In Nigeria.” That motion waa co-sponsored by Senator Ali Ndume. Moving that motion,. I stated the need to be more pragmatic about addressing food insecurity, curbing herder-farmer crises, kidnapping for ransom, and terrorism; to ensure the development of a viable National Commodity Board to regulate the price of grains; to ensure the elimination of artificial contributions to food and commodity inflation in Nigeria. Interview response to the question ' What about agriculture and the power outage?' The Federal Government responded without delay and sent 60 trucks of fertilisers to each of the states of the federation. Each senator received two trucks of fertiliser for distribution to farmers in our various constituencies. I was allocated 1,963 bags of DPK Fertilizer and 437 bags of Urea. Interview response to the question ' What about agriculture and the power outage?' I paid for the transportation of the fertilisers from Kaduna and Port Harcourt. Starting from August 19th, I ensured that the fertilisers were distributed to farmers across the three federal constituencies and seven local governments. Interview response to the question ' What about agriculture and the power outage?' Let me tell you, any nation that cannot feed itself has a big problem. There is no greater threat to national security than food security. There has been an increase in poverty because over the years, agriculture which used to be our stable business, has been neglected, partly due to famers/herders clashes that are daily driving people away from their farms and partly because many felt farming is a business for the uneducated. Interview response to the question ' What about agriculture and the power outage?' Our interest in farming has continued to be on the decline, especially among our young people, consequently there is low productivity, inaccessible or expensive inputs, increasing post-harvest loss due to poor logistics and insecurity across the country. Interview response to the question ' What about agriculture and the power outage?' External links Category:Living people Category:Politicians from Nigeria