Agaptus NwozorSegun OshewoloSolomon I. IfejikaJohn Shola OlanrewajuModupe Ake2025-05-152025-05-152021-07-25lectoral Act; illegitimate electoral funding; monetization of politics; electoralfunding; political financing; Nigeria2331-1886https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2021.1961396https://uilspace.unilorin.edu.ng/handle/123456789/16750This paper examines the monetization of politics through the manipula-tion of the loopholes in the electoral funding architecture of Nigeria. It evaluateswhether the ceiling placed on individual and group donations to candidates andpolitical parties by Nigeria’s Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) was adhered to inmobilizing election funds in recent presidential elections. In other words, this paperinvestigates whether election funding in Nigeria’s recent elections followed theprescribed protocols as indicated in the Electoral Act and the extent to whichadherence or otherwise contributed to the monetization of the electoral contestsand its implication for electoral integrity. Using data generated from key informantinterviews and qualitatively analyzed in the tradition of logical inductive method the paper finds a contravention of the legal provisions for electoral funding. Thevarious political parties leveraged their political structures to raise funds withoutdue recourse to the prescriptions of the Electoral Act, thus compromising the level-playing ground necessary for electoral integrity. The paper contends that the con-solidation of democracy in Nigeria must entail the plugging of the capillaries andstreams of illegitimate electoral funding and the establishment of critical institu-tional framework that would drive adherence to constitutionally prescribed provi-sions on electoral fundingenArticle