By Tony Ubani in Maputo
AS Team Nigeria begins her quest to redeem the image of the country with more gold in Athletics which starts today,  former international, Innocent Egbunike would be in the background to monitor events as an assessor.

Determined to shake off the blues of the poor outing in Daegu, South Korea, where Nigerian athletes came back empty handed, the National Sports Commission, NSC, invited  the great Egbunike to assess the performance of Team Nigeria in athletics and come up with his views that could bring Nigeria back to reckoning in athletics. Team Nigeria’s Chef de Mission, Alhassan Yakmut confirmed that Egbunike was invited to assess the Games and give them a position paper that would turn athletics around for the Olympics.

“Yes, we invited him to Maputo to come and observe things. He has nothing to do with the coaching but to assess and give us a paper. He was a great and outstanding athlete during his days and we feel that we can tap from his wealth of experience before the London 2012 Olympics”, Yakmut said.

He also noted that Egbunike would be of immense value to Nigerian athletics depending on what he submits after the Maputo Games.

“We’ll look into his paper and discuss with him. There is nothing stopping us from getting him on board just like what Sunday Bada is doing. These athletes were good and we need them at a time like this”, Yakmut added.

Egbunike’s stunning performance at the All Africa Games in Kenya in the last leg of the 4 x 400m to win gold for Nigeria and deny Kenya made former President Daniel Arap Moi to say that he was not innocent by his efforts. He later named him the “great Innocent of Africa”.

Contacted here in Maputo, Egbunike said that it was not time for him to speak or assess the Nigerian team since he did not know anything about their preparations.

“Frankly, there is nothing I can say about a team I know nothing about. I do not know the level of their preparation. All I am doing here is to pray for them to excel. And I know they can do it”.

He however refused to talk on whether he was waiting in the wings to take over the coaching of the athletics as rumors are making the rounds here in Maputo.

“Please, it will be better if you can find out from chef de mission on my mission. I do not know anything”, he said.