LAGOS, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- A senior Nigerian official said here Thursday that Africa would remain the centerpiece of his country's foreign policy.

    "Nigeria chose Africa as the centerpiece of its foreign policy on the attainment of independence in 1960 and the situation still remains," Fani Kayode, special adviser to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on public policy, told reporters.

    Kayode said Nigeria's recent involvement in the stoppage of blood letting in Darfur in western Sudan as well as flash points in Cote d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of the Congo buttressthe interest Nigeria has on the continent.

    He added that what the various countries of Africa require is aleadership that is driven by vision to take Africa from the abyss of despair to the lofty heights of self-propelled prosperity.

    Africa is bedeviled by the problems of poverty, corruption, diseases, ravaging spread of HIV/AIDS and the abuses of human rights, he said.

    Speaking of Obasanjo's reelection last month as the chairman ofthe African Union, Kayode said "his tenure will take concrete steps to improve the lot of the African continent as a matter of foreign policy." Enditem