Issues and regulations in party financing and electoral expenses in Nigeria (1999–2020)

ABSTRACT Political parties require strong financial backing to operate. Campaign activities require massive spending to convince electorates to accept the candidature of political parties in their locations. Yet, there are financial regulations on how campaigns and related activities should be conducted in Nigeria. This is to ensure transparency and accountability and eschew corrupt practices in the electoral process. However, despite these constitutional regulations and the provision of the Nigerian Electoral Act 2010, there seem to be cases of violations of financial regulations and weak enforcement of penalties. Thus, this paper examines the regulations in political party financing in Nigeria and the measures needed to ensure compliance. The work adopted a particularistic qualitative method of data collection and analysis. It uses primary (obtained from agencies) and secondary (government’s document and laws) data. The paper concludes that, while there are well-articulated regulations on political party financing in Nigeria, their implementation, monitoring, and enforcement, as well as the sanction of offenders remain very weak. The paper, therefore, recommends that policy makers, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and civil societies need to ensure compliance.