The politics of Kayan aiki

Also published in Daily Trust

As the rescheduled February 2015 elections finally commence tomorrow, Nigeria’s political terrain has been flooded with kayan aiki, also known as tsari, which has been flowing in unprecedented amounts particularly over the past few months of intensified election campaign thanks to the seasonal “generosity” of politicians vying for various political offices at all levels of government.

By the way, as a trendy Hausa compound word, which probably developed following the country’s return to democracy in 1999 and has ever since then been commonly used, though largely informally, in political context. Kayan aiki, which also literally means tools, stands metaphorically for the financial inducements doled out to the electorate by candidates with a view to winning their votes during elections.

Admittedly, having never been involved in partisan politics, I never knew the metaphorical meaning of kayan aiki. I would always wonder whenever I learned how the ability or failure of a candidate to provide and ensure the availability of kayan aiki boosted or undermined his chances of winning an election. It was at a neighbourhood hangout I used to frequent in my native Kano city that I once enquired and got the meaning of kayan aiki in political context.

The main beneficiaries of kayan aiki who are mostly top party members, influential non-party members, well connected lobbyists, traditional rulers, religious clerics, statesmen, community leaders, artists and even criminal gang leaders and other militia commanders have always eagerly waited for elections season to make fortunes, and they are apparently making it this time around much more than any time before.

Ironically however, while each individual among these “privileged” groups whose collective voting strength (even if they actually vote) is too insignificant to make any significant difference in election results, gets and withholds as much amount of kayan aiki, depending on his level of influence, the real voters who particularly suffer as a result of bad leadership and actually queue up to cast their votes during elections end up with nothing but a few Naira notes  and/or handouts of some foodstuffs or some other commodities.

Anyway, as I pointed out earlier, the amounts of kayan aiki being doled out to induce voters are unprecedented in the country’s history of democratic campaigning and lobbying. This is especially as it increasingly appears that the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan is facing a decisive defeat in tomorrow’s presidential election.

Kayan aiki has been, and is perhaps still being, recklessly doled out not only in Naira but in the extremely scarce and highly valued US Dollar also, which results in further depreciation of the already virtually valueless Naira hence exacerbates Nigerians’ already weak and still declining purchasing power, which in turn further undermines the country’s collapsing economy.

Though nobody doubts the fact that kayan aiki is absolutely haram, being the proceeds of massive and primitive acts of theft from public treasury or fraudulent campaign contributions from the main beneficiaries of corruption in the private sector, almost everybody, including the clerics, with the exception of a few individuals of course, sees no moral or religious prohibition against accepting it under the pretext that it, after all, basically belongs to the public.

Many respected individuals and religious clerics accept kayan aiki though some of them advise their respective audiences to accept it but vote for the right candidates. In my humble opinion however, I believe that the issue of accepting kayan aiki in terms of halal or haram is not that simple, it instead needs exhaustive jurisprudential treatment to adequately address.

Because I believe that even if the needy ordinary voters were to be excused for accepting it due to their sheer poverty, those who are not that needy and who are, by the way, the main beneficiaries of kayan aiki can’t have any acceptable excuse for accepting it.

Besides, while many ordinary poor voters who accept their respective shares of kayan aiki can, and indeed do, vote for the right candidates, many, if not most, of its main beneficiaries including religious clerics don’t have the guts to publicly and unambiguously advise their respective followers to vote for other candidates instead of their “generous” benefactor(s), even when it is obvious that their benefactor(s) is/are not the right candidate(s) for the job(s).

In any case, now that the long awaited election finally takes place tomorrow amid continued flow of  kayan aiki, Nigerians, both those who have accepted and/or are willing to accept it, and those who have not accepted it and/or have not been offered it should, while casting their votes, sincerely consult their own consciences and be guided accordingly, for it takes only a living conscience to be able to decide who to vote for especially at presidential election level where the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari are practically the only contenders.

The fact that Nigerians have successfully resisted and indeed managed to neutralize the divisive strategies desperately pursued by the incumbents and the other vested interests hell-bent on maintaining the status quo inspires hope that no amount of kayan aiki can undermine their collective resolve to end the current mess in the country and bring about the much needed change by voting for Muhammadu Buhari.