In legislative representation, perfection is an illusion. No lawmaker in the history of Kogi State has met 100 percent of his constituents’ yearnings, and none ever will. What matters is presence, effort, and measurable progress within constitutional limits.
That context is important in the debate over Lokoja I State Constituency.
Before politics, Hon. Bin-Ebaiya Shehu Tijjani, popularly known as Team-Best, was already a familiar name in Lokoja. From Lagos where he built his business, he paid school fees, settled hospital bills and intervened in water challenges. That goodwill made his 2023 election a referendum on trust, not just a contest.
Three years after, the dynamics of office have changed, but the man has not disappeared.
A lawmaker is not an executive chairman, a commissioner or a contractor. His constitutional mandate is three-fold: lawmaking, representation and oversight. Judged strictly by those yardsticks, Hon. Ebaiya has shown up.
His legislative footprint in the 8th Assembly is verifiable and active:
He contributed to the Kogi State Anti-Corruption Agency Bill, pushed for the Kogi State Free Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare Services Bill, 2025, and supported the establishment of the Kogi State College of Agriculture, Ochaja-Egume Bill, 2026.
His motions speak directly to Lokoja’s urban realities: expansion of the Lokoja Urban Mass Transit System to check arbitrary charges by commercial tricycles and motorcycles; provision of safe and potable water as Chairman, House Committee on Water Resources; youth unemployment and capital-city pressure; and a comprehensive Social Protection Policy Framework for the aged, persons with disabilities, women and children.
Over 15 motions to his name, one of the highest in the current Assembly, show a lawmaker who understands his primary duty: to give his people a voice.
Outside the chamber, his approach has been quiet lobbying, not noisy grandstanding. Working in synergy with his colleague and Speaker, Rt. Hon. Aliyu Umar Yusuf of Lokoja II, he has leveraged relationships to attract state interventions for the metropolis.
Before now, as a private citizen and later as Senior Special Adviser on Water Resources, he undertook reticulation and repair of moribund pipes from Karaworo to Up-Garage and Felele, an effort commended by the Hakimi of Ward C. As lawmaker, he has sustained it with boreholes and facilitation of water projects.
In education, his Educational Development Programme provided 500 free JAMB forms, free computer-based preparatory classes for JAMB, WAEC, NECO and NABTEB candidates, and a reward scheme for top-performing students.
And only recently, he sponsored a free medical outreach that attended to over 1,500 constituents in his constituency, providing consultation, drugs and referrals, a direct response to the health burden facing families in Lokoja.
None of these erase the fact that Lokoja I, being the state capital, is a metropolis of endless needs. Needs are infinite, resources are finite. Private philanthropy allows choice; public office puts everyone on the same queue at the same time. Managing that pressure with calm and accessibility is part of what representation demands, and Ebaiya has done so with uncommon humility.
This is therefore a subtle but firm appeal: Do not throw away the baby with the bath water. The Lokoja 1 Lawmaker will build on the experience to the admiration of majority constituents.
Every first term is for learning the ropes, building networks and understanding the system. The second term is for consolidation. Hon. Bin-Ebaiya is a work in progress, but a work with visible foundation, proven loyalty to the APC, accessibility, and a record that outweighs the noise.
The recent criticisms from a few quarters, largely driven by post-primary grievances after an open stakeholder ballot where all aspirants agreed to the process, should not blind the larger constituency to the bigger picture. Dissent is legitimate in democracy, but sustained pull-him-down after a credible process serves no one.
Lokoja I needs continuity, not change for its own sake. It needs a lawmaker who is already in the room, already listening, already lobbying, and already showing up.
For a man who showed up when he held no office, and has continued to show up with the little available in office, standing by him now is both logical and fair.
