N6.44bn for a World Cup we already missed – who is laughing?

Atiku Abubakar has dropped a bombshell about the 2026 budget and honestly, the level of impunity here is staggering. He revealed that N6.44 billion was allocated for a 'Presidential Support Group for the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers' even though Nigeria had already been eliminated from the tournament. This is not a typo. This is the actual budget that was presented and defended.

Atiku asked the questions we should all be demanding answers to: how does a serious government budget billions for a competition that no longer exists? Who inserted this line item? Who approved it? And most importantly, who was going to pocket the money? He described it as a damning indictment of the integrity of the budgeting process and I cannot disagree. This is the same government that is now investigating a fake agency called PFIPC that was allocated N1.3 billion. So we have fake agencies and fake budget lines all running simultaneously.

The real scandal is not just one man impersonating authority. The scandal is that this administration allegedly opened the doors for him to operate with official legitimacy. If the budget can carry N6.44 billion for a dead project, what else is buried in there that we have not found? Atiku is calling for an independent probe. The question is: will the National Assembly grow a spine and demand answers or will they just wave it through?