The National Sports Commission (NSC) has earmarked N2.1bn in the 2026 federal budget to “promote and organise” the 2025 National Sports Festival in Ogun State—an event that was concluded eight months ago—triggering fresh concerns over duplication and waste in public spending.
A review of the 2026 Appropriation Bill shows the controversial line item under the commission’s capital expenditure, despite the festival having been staged in Ogun between May 16 and May 30, 2025 and formally declared open by Vice-President Kashim Shettima.
The development is raising questions over the purpose of the allocation, especially as Ogun State is not scheduled to host another edition of the festival.
The 2026 National Sports Festival has already been awarded to Enugu State, with separate provisions in the same budget for preparations in that state.
Findings showed that the Federal Ministry of Sports Development, now renamed the National Sports Commission, had already budgeted N3bn in the 2025 fiscal year for the organisation of the Ogun festival. Ogun State also committed massive resources to hosting the event.
Budget documents indicate that the state spent N2.6bn in 2024 on capital projects related to the festival and allocated another N2.3bn in its 2025 budget for the same purpose.
In addition, Ogun reportedly expended N36.5m on overheads in 2024 and budgeted N285m for personnel costs
in 2025, alongside N1.261bn for capital expenditure tied to the event.
Despite the conclusion of the festival, the NSC still included N2.1bn in the 2026 budget to organise the same Ogun edition, while also budgeting N129.5m for preparations for the 2026 festival in Enugu, after an earlier N185m provision in 2025.
Efforts to reach out to the NSC failed as the officials could not be reached as of the time of filing this report.
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