The Politics of Blood(Y) Tonic

Thus, the “so-called primitive accumulation … is nothing more than the historical process of divorcing the producer from the means of production”

A more contemporary scholar, Prof. Issa Shivji, a Law lecturer at the University of Dares Salam, Tanzania described primitive accumulation as the act of reaping where one did not sow or reaping without sowing. This author traces primitive accumulation in Tanzania and concludes that land expropriation particularly by white South Africans for the purpose of using black labour for farming purpose and also for industrial production cannot be justified under any guise. To him, primitive accumulation is simply stealing from the poor by the rich actively promoted and supported by state and its instrument of coercion.

Coming back home, the blood tonic syndrome is simply analogous to primitive accumulation. A set of political elites gather themselves under (pun intended) a platform for the purpose of looting the treasury and in return, pretend to provide support to the politicians. In some cases, politicians who have lost touch with the electorate or have become unpopular based on their poor performances rely on these so called stakeholders to either coerce the electorate to vote for their benefactors or make themselves available as instruments of rigging and perpetuating electoral fraud in their different areas or spheres of influence. Some of them are organized as “Council of Elders”, “Senior Citizens Forum” or “Leaders of Thought”. With those highfalutin and sweetcoated names, they tend to mask the fact that they all belong to the ruling political parties and instead command unwarranted respect from the populace. Thus, as you get to the states that have this kind of subterranean arrangement, what you see are ‘strong men’ empowered by the State, existing alongside very weak institutions. Because many of them are so myopic in their thinking, they don’t pause to ask a few salient questions. Sadly, what happens thereafter with the government does not concern them. They insulate themselves from the reality that having received their potion of the ‘blood tonic’, the dispenser of the tonic will naturally appropriate a larger share to himself, his family members and his pathetic cronies. They fail to understand that once this kind of attitude is encouraged, they take away their right to ask questions when things are going wrong in the State as they invariably would. They don’t understand that they have not only lost their voices but that they have also sold their conscience, if indeed they had any. They are ignorant of the fact that sharing of the resources of the state would result in unpaid salaries, untarred roads, poor healthcare facilities, ill-equipped schools, unhygienic environments, lack of potable water and electricity and so on. You will hear most of these ‘blood(y) tonic’ recipients sermonizing publicly about stamping out corruption when in fact, they are Corruption personified.

My response to our political stakeholder was simple. I told him I would not continue with the “blood tonic” practice. He wouldn’t let me land before he went on a tirade. “I can see that you don’t want to win the election”. In fact, you are not serious and I have no time for unserious contestants”. In spite of his objection, I continued by informing him that my understanding of the blood tonic was akin to “primitive accumulation” and that instead of that, I would rather promote a policy of “wealth creation”. How would that happen? I explained that instead of the blood tonic, I will create an environment where businesses will thrive, where investments would be attracted such that qualified stakeholders would be appointed to boards of those companies. Such companies would employ their children who were then, and even now, mostly unemployed. I promised to create conditions for our children to be properly trained in well-equipped schools with qualified and highly motivated teachers, who would not only be adequately compensated but would be up to date with contemporary developments in the ever changing world rather than those who today regurgitate antiquated thoughts. I informed my host that I would introduce educational curricula that would be consistent with the modern world of robotics, artificial intelligence and 3D printing rather than the jaded study of pinhole cameras in the 21st century. I also promised to empower our children to acquire relevant skills and knowledge that would make them confident to challenge their peers in other emerging societies like China, Turkey and India. I promised to eradicate the ignorance and docility which would make our youths live on handouts and grow up to expect their own blood tonic. Based on my sincere belief that health is wealth, the blood tonic syndrome would be eliminated if we invested massively in a functional healthcare delivery system. Combining all these would make our people become financially independent of state resources and make the wanton sharing of public funds unattractive and reprehensible. I talked about massive rollout of infrastructure amongst several other issues. I’m not sure our stakeholder heard what he was expecting to hear, but my sense was that what he heard, he had never heard in his entire political scavenging journey. I am sad to state that my experience is not unique and that there are many other states where the same blood sucking practice is still active and thriving today! I believe it is time to confront these monsters who have constituted themselves into ‘political stakeholders’ and force the transition from primitive accumulation to wealth creation. It is important for all men of goodwill to join in this solemn assignment.