By Special Correspondent

The Federal Government, FG, and Enugu State Government have signed the host state agreement in respect of the 2026 National Sports Festival billed to hold in the South East State.

The agreement, which was signed by the Director-General of the National Sports Commission, Hon. Bukola Olopade for the FG and Governor Peter Mbah for Enugu State, on Tuesday, now awards Enugu State the full hosting rights for the 2026 edition of the National Sports Festival.

Speaking at the signing ceremony at the Government House, Enugu, Governor Peter Mbah thanked the Commission and other sports stakeholders for the confidence reposed in the state and his administration to stage the event, assuring that it would discharge its hosting responsibilities in a way that would leave a lifelong memory and experience on the athletes and all lovers of sports in Nigeria and beyond.

“We also appreciate the value and significance of this award. I want to commend the commission for finding Enugu worthy of being the next host of the 23rd National Sports Festival. We are going to discharge ourselves creditably.

“As you know, we like to be a role model as a state that gained preeminence over 115 years ago. We will not want to let our forebears down. We will live up to that standard.

“We have already set forth at dawn. Immediately that announcement was made, we mobilised our team. We are already working on revamping the Awgu Games Village and a whole lot. We have decided to deliver a brand new Games Village. We are also completely renovating the stadium to brand new.

“We are making sure that by the time you come here by the end of this year, you are going to be highly impressed. It is not revamping, rebranding or re-equipping, but we are also going to build additional facilities to the existing one. We are looking forward to having a word-class experience befitting the sports men and women, making our hosting a lifelong memory and experience,” he stated.

Earlier in his address, Hon. Olopade said the commission was encouraged by Enugu’s bid, available facilities, improved security in the state, and Governor Mbah’s determination to turn around the sports and social infrastructure to grant Enugu the right to host the event after the 22nd edition to be hosted by Ogun State.

The National Sports Commission boss added that the hosting would boost investment and tourism in the state before, during, and after the event.