Lagos — This is a very emotive subject, always treated with sentiments. However over the years, reports from around the African continent tend to reinforce the belief that there is really something wrong somewhere. So the debate has refused to go away.

Haiti became the world's first black-led republic and the first independent Caribbean state when it threw off French colonial control and slavery in a series of wars in the early 19th century. By the time an earthquake hit the country recently, it was almost a failed state.

I don't like pity parties and I hate to blame everything on the past. But according to UCLA anthropologist Andrew Apter "the reason Haiti is poor is because Europe imposed a blockade on trade after the slave revolt in 1804, and you have an extremely polarized class structure in which a few families stepped into the positions of the former colonial plantation owners. There has been a horrible cycle of plundering and autocracy within Haitian leadership."

Quite a reasonable thing to say but the element of leadership failure and attitudinal problems of the people are glaring in Haiti. I like this reaction from a reader when I wrote about Haiti in January. "Haiti oh, Naija oh, inner city Detroit oh, Peckham oh, Hilborough oh, it's a BLACK THING!!!!"

Nigeria will be fifty later this year but its development has been plagued by the subject of this debate. Is there anything wrong with the Blackman?

It is natural for people to protect their dignity. It is a primary human instinct so I expect virulent defence when this issue of the Blackman is raised. Former South African President Nelson Mandela and some hugely successful Africans are often cited. But it would appear unscientific to draw conclusions on the spikes from an average trend.

In truth, as someone once said, if the whole world were to choose a father on earth, it would be the Madiba, as President Mandela is deservedly called. And yes, we have exceptional Africans like Professor Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Philip Emegwali, supercomputer scientist, mathematician, and inventor, and Ave Kludze, the Ghanaian who is one of NASA's top strategists. Among other achievements, the astronautical engineer has remotely has piloted space craft.

From this list alone, it would be unsafe to assume that the Blackman has an inferior IQ. But much as they do, as individuals, Africa's brightest and best brains can't spruce up the poor image of the Blackman much. What is required are visionary leaders who can lead countries into prosperity.

For people who defend the Blackman, my position is simple. I ask them to cite an African country that has had a sustained development such that human and economic rights of the people like the right to basic human amenities can be taken for granted; a country where the larger population is above the poverty line.

Good as the case of Botswana looks, the defendants of Africa know it can't be a good representation of the continent. The ever humble Mandela admits the leadership crisis in Africa. So does Dr. Mo Ibrahim of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which found no credible person for its award last year.

Of course, he would remember a Nigerian friend of mine at the World Bank who had warned him earlier that what she was seeing in the countries on the continent might rob the Foundation of awardees. I also know that among some officials of NEPAD, it is suspected that there is a problem with African leaders.

The reason I ask who will save the Blackman is because he is originally from Africa, a continent blighted by poverty and with life hallmarked by strife, starvation, lack and at best safari parks, with wild animals jumping about. In contrast, Malaysia, a contemporary of leading African countries is hallmarked by the prestigious Twin Towers, lush tourist attractions and signs of economic wellbeing. It is one country I will love to visit again - many times over. The Asian Tigers have left Africa far behind.

The poor African situation is not because Africa was originally poor. The following are quotes I find very applicable to the Africa problem: Capturing Africa's magnetic ability to attract perilous opposites, TIME Magazine once reported the following unpalatable fact: Africa-especially the sub-Saharan region-has begun to look like an immense illustration of chaos theory."

"According to the observations made by the British charity Oxfam, development efforts have been in place all over the continent throughout the past two decades, yet Africans continue to grow poorer with each passing year.

"Africa is blessed with all the resources that make for greatness - human, material, and ecological. The continent harbours more than 40 percent of the world's potential hydroelectric power supply; the bulk of the world's diamond and chromium resources; 30 percent of the uranium; 50 percent of the world's gold; 90 percent of its cobalt; 50 percent of its phosphates; 40 percent of its platinum; 7.5 percent of its coal; 8 percent of its known petroleum reserves; 12 percent of its natural gas; 3 percent of its iron ore; 64 percent of the world's manganese, 13 percent of its copper, vast bauxite, nickel and lead resources and millions of untilled farmlands."

It will take a few successful African countries to change this poor perception, but where are they? The number of beacons of hope continues to shrink. Nigeria's one-step forward-two-steps backward style of development is failing the continent.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni should have been another beacon of hope, but he has been in power for 24 years. Recently he placed his presidential guard under an elite army unit commanded by his son, increasing opposition's suspicions that he is quietly grooming his son for succession.

For me, that is the problem of the Blackman: the penchant to personalise power. It is evident in politics, in the public service and even in the private sector. The exact opposite of the belief in the US and other developed countries that the office of the president is more important than the occupier. A higher version of the personalisation of leadership is making it a monarchical affair; a father-and -son affair.

Only last week Faure Gnassingbe was said to have won the elections in Togo to continue to as President. When his dictator father died, the army installed him as President, attracting the opposition of ECOWAS which led to the elections Faure, of course, won.

The personalisation of power is so much that between 1960 and 1969, twenty-eight of the thirty-seven African leaders who left office had to be forced out. The old man in Zimbabwe has been in power since it gained its independence in 1978. At over 82 years of age, he is still looking for another term. In North Africa, former African Union chairman Ghadaffi has been ruling since 1969 and he's currently grooming his son to take over. His neighbour Mubarak of Egypt has been serving as president since 1981. His people have gone to the polls many times over the years but most times Mubarak had been the only name on the ballot. When they had the option to elect others the opposition candidates didn't matter.

As a friend noted, of all the races known to man, perhaps Africans are the least prepared for the rigid demands of modernity - time, organisation, order, and technology, among others. Time, material and human resources are wasted on personalising power and self-enrichment such that little is left for modernisation.

Of course President Yar' Adua may not have a sit-tight ambition, but personalisation of power is the reason a cabal is making political fortunes of his illness at huge cost to the country.

The whole problem in the Nigerian Presidency can be reduced to the hide-and-seek game being played with the ailing President Yar' Adua.

If tomorrow President Yar' Adua is seen jogging around Abuja to show his fitness thus playing the trump card of people who are hiding him, many people will be happy for him but is the power play worth the monumental loss the country is incurring?

I know there is a group that is trying to force the false truth down our throats. When I wrote about the President Yar' Adua last week, some people called me a "liar" for saying he is being hidden away. Many of them used the word "liar", and one of them added, "you are a liar, but I won't blame you."

I have no problems with that but enough of the hide-and- seek game, which is glaringly part of the Blackman's problem. Yar' Adua swore an oath to be the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and he liked to be called a Servant Leader.

If Nigeria, with all of its promises is failing the Blackman, as other African countries are shamelessly doing, who will save the face of the Blackman?

Who will remove the shame of Africa? Like former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the THISDAY Awards, I am sick and tired of the boastful talk about the continent's resource endowments with no commensurate development. Truly, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of waiting for the leader who will save the Blackman!