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One of the challenges facing Nigeria higher education is cultism. Secret cults have developed into socio-cultural menace and assumed a disturbing dimension in recent times on Nigerian university campuses. Cultism breeds gruesome acts of destruction, deviance, violence and homicide. This study constructed and tested a model for providing a causal explanation of cult membership in terms of socio - psychological and academic factors among university students in Southwestern Nigeria, with a view to developing an empirical approach that would further add to an informed understanding of the problem and its solutions. An ex-post facto research method using correlational design was adopted for the study. Four research questions were generated and answered. Since cult-related crises have a regional significance and are pronounced in southern Nigerian campuses, seven hundred and ninety (790) subjects using stratified quota sampling technique were randomly drawn from the ten federal and state universities in Southwestern Nigeria.

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