I first came upon Daniel Jordan Smith's remarkable book as I was close to finishing my own book on corruption ( Corruption, Inequality, and the Rule of Law , 2008). I had decided that I needed to include an analysis of Africa and especially Nigeria. At the publisher's booth at one or another political science convention, I was able to secure page proofs of his book and realized that I had come upon a kindred spirit. Smith's argument on Nigeria was remarkably similar to my general framework for analyzing corruption, despite our coming from different disciplines and using very different methodologies.