Kaiama

Kaiama is in Kwara State. Kaiama is a town in northwestern Kwara State, Southwest Nigeria. It is the headquarter of Kaiama Local Government Area.

Understand
Bokobaru is the major language spoken across the local government area, except for Adena and Bani wards. The major language spoken in Bani Ward is Fulani while in Adena Ward, Yoruba and Hausa are the dominant languages.

Kaiama Local Government Area is one of the food baskets of Nigeria, producing agricultural products like yams and yam flour, guinea corn, soya beans, cassava, and beans in commercial quantities. Kaiama is termed the "Food basket of Kwara".

The major occupation of the people of Kaiama is farming. The farmers' major produces are Soya beans(which they popularly call Soya), yams(there are varieties and seasons for different kinds of yam, the first produce of yam that is harvested is majorly for pounded yam; during this season, you see lots of houses pounding and eating pounded yam most of the times including morning and evening). The other season for harvest after few months is that of yam used for making yam flour, this is entirely different from the first harvest because it is smaller, not as big as the first harvest.

Get in
Getting to Kaiama you need to get to Ilorin first, the capital of Kwara State. The city of Ilorin serves as a gateway between the northern and southern part of Nigeria. There are parks in Ilorin where you can get cars going to Kaiama. You can get a car at Gambari park situated just few seconds away from Fiolu pharmacy in Gambari,Ilorin. You can also decide to go to oko-lowo in Ilorin to get car or bus(here is said to be faster, and the cars move faster).

Ilorin to Kaiama is approximately 5 hours due to the bad road from Kishi, Oyo State to Kaiama. Getting to Kaiama is not really a straight forward journey, from Ilorin, one has to travel through Igbeti in Oyo state, then to Kishi(Kisi), Oyo state from Kishi to Aboki to Beriya, then to Kaiama.

By plane
You can fly in from other Nigerian cities (Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Kaduna).

The Ilorin international airport is also used for domestic flights to other cities within the country and international flights to Saudi Arabia for Hajj and Umrah.

By train
Rail services in Nigeria are still very slow and unreliable but several routes have reappeared. Nigerian Railway Corporation have daily services from Ilorin via Ibadan, and an overnight service from Kano via Kaduna a few times per week. A new higher speed railway is under construction and is expected to be completed in the 2020s, resulting in increased speeds and frequency.

By bus
Several bus companies like Young Legacy, Mufsuf Motors, Kasmag line, Okin Express offers daily services from almost all major cities (Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Kaduna, Kabba, Lokoja, Sokoto, Kano, Makurdi, etc.)  around the country. While buses usually are quite comfortable, journey times are very long.

There are also independent transporters under the aegis of the national union of road transport workers (NURTW) and road transport employees association of Nigeria (RTEAN) in various parks, such as Post Office, Offa garage, and Maraba who travel to various towns within and outside the state. From Ilorin you can only board a bus to Kaiama. Buses are available in all terminals.

Get around
As at 2023, the only means of transportation of getting around is via motorcycle. Do not be surprised when you get into the town and you find out the only means of transportation to get around Kaiama is motorcycle.

Popular name for motorcycle here in Kaiama is Kabu.

Do
Kaiama is popular for its "Gaani", an annual festival for initiating the children of royal families. Gaani Festival in Kaiama takes place every year during Maulud Nabiyy i.e 12th Rabiu Awwal. This festival holds for days where different events happen on each day. These include:


 * Emir's Gaani Eve: This is also known as Emir's Wakekeep. It is a day to remember the past ancestors and Emirs that have ruled Kaiama from inception i.e a night to honour departed monarchs and ancestors.
 * Shaving and Barbing Day for Princes and Princesses initiates: On this day, the Ki Yenzide(Magajiya) cuts out little part of hair at the center of the head( here, the Princes and Princesses are given royalty names)at a cubicle-like building at the frontage of Emir's palace. From there, the princes and princesses moved to the next stage where group of shavers cut the hair completely, after cutting, they are taken to the Queen mother house where they will bath with water boiled with herbleaf called ewe okun. A new cloth is always worn after the bathing. After wearing the new cloth, the Princes and Princesses moves to the next stage which is drumming:drummer drums for the princes and princesses( there is this believe that if the Prince or princess being drummed for is not a real prince or princess, his or her body will get swollen). Each prince and princess brings 4 yards of cloth dropped in 2 buckets Infront of the drummer (this means 2 yards of cloth is dropped in each bucket).


 * Horseracing and Cultural Display: On the grand finale day, the Emir of Kaiama, Senator representing Kwara North, and other dignitaries are always present to witness the celebration.

There is always a beautiful display of durbar by horse riders with their horses adorned in different multi-coloured attires. The cultural groups like the Boyeru dancers, Dan Kwairo, Gumbe dancers from Kainji also thrills the audience with different dances.

Eat
Kaiama is popular for a delicacy called Wasa Wasa. Wasa Wasa is made from cutting a moulded Amala(yam flour) into bits. Seeing Wasa wasa for the first, you would think it is that popular rice called wanche but it is not because the major ingredients differ. Wasa wasa is made from yam flour while wanche is made from rice with leaf called poporo to give it its brownish colour.

There are also local restaurants (buka) and canteen where you can buy food ranging from pounded yam, amala, rice, eba and other local food you can think of.

Stay safe
Kaiama itself is generally safe. But there is a warning that when in Kaiama, you should not go to bushy area and those remote villages far-away from the town because of your own safety.

Go next

 * Ibadan
 * Ogbomosho
 * Lagos
 * Ibadan
 * Offa
 * Omu-aran
 * Niger