This article is in two parts. The first part analyses, and largely applauds, the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, the latest in a series of enactments designed to curb corruption in Nigeria over the last thirty years. The second part looks at the social environment within which corruption operates. It points out that in the past the environment was such that anti-corruption measures were bound to fail, but it concludes, in optimistic vein, that the recent return to civilian rule has created a climate in which the new Act is likely to have an effect in the fight against corruption.