Texas of Africa (Nigeria nickname)

The country of Nigeria, in West Africa, has been called the “Texas of Africa.” Nigeria is a large country (just as Texas is a large state), Nigeria has oil (just as Texas has oil), and Nigeria has some lawlessness (just like Texas in western movies).
 
“You might call Nigeria the Texas of Africa” was cited in the Christian Science Monitor in 1959. “Nigeria, said to be the ‘Texas of Africa’” was cited in 1960. “Nigeria is the Texas of Africa: it’s big and loud and brash, a place of huge potential, untapped talent, murderous conflict and petroleum riches” was cited in the New York (NY) Times in November 2012.
   
 
Wikipedia: Nigeria
Nigeria /naɪˈdʒɪəriə/, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. There are over 500 ethnic groups in Nigeria of which the three largest ethnic groups are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.
 
4 August 1959, Christian Science Monitor, “Vigorous Nigeria—Texas of Africa: Wide-Open, Stimulating Land Knows It Is Going Places” by John Hughes, pg. 9:
YOU MIGHT CALL Nigeria the Texas of Africa. There isn’t much actual likeness, of course, between this cluttered African city of Lagos and modern Dallas.
       
Google News Archive
22 January 1960, Victoria (TX) Advocate, “Darl Continent Coming Alive, Speakers Explain,” pg. 3, col. 3:
Preceding the symposium, Mrs. Wayne Hartman gave a roll call sketch on Nigeria, said to be the “Texas of Africa,” since it is related in the sense that it is a large and stimulating country.
 
Google Books
Nigeria Newsletter
Issues 130-154
7 April 1984
Pg. 106:
THE “TEXAS” OF AFRICA?
   
Smaragaret’s Eyes
June 10, 2009 · 16:19
You Are Welcome to Abuja (Again)
U.S. Embassy, Abuja, Nigeria
(...)
As someone once told my dad,
 
“Nigeria is the Texas of Africa — everything’s bigger. And weirder.”
 
Google Books
Why Geography Matters, More Than Ever
By Harm de Blij
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
2012
Pg. 58:
Nigeria, to be sure, is a large country, and in fact it (Pg. 59—ed.) is the most populous country in all of Africa. But in the minds of quite a few Nigerian students, it was also the Texas of Africa. “Well, Nigerians think big,” said a student from Ibadan when I asked him about this.
 
New York (NY) Times
Remembering Biafra
‘There Was a Country,’ by Chinua Achebe
By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: November 1, 2012
(...)
Nigeria is the Texas of Africa: it’s big and loud and brash, a place of huge potential, untapped talent, murderous conflict and petroleum riches. It also has a singular capacity for irony and self-reflection that is both cultural habit and survival tactic. It is difficult and often dangerous to get by in Nigeria unless you are a fortunate member of the infinitesimally small and mostly corrupt oil-fed elite. Acute awareness of your surroundings is a necessity; along with it goes another Nigerian trait, thinking and dreaming big.
 
Twitter
Craig’s Porno Name‏
@CraigGroSchlong  
The Texas of Africa RT #ChristianPost Nigeria Passes Bill to Ban Gay Marriage, Gay Rights Groups. http://bit.ly/18CwAeD
1:13 AM - 31 May 13
   
Texas Monthly
Greetings from the Texas of Kazakhstan
Why Shymkent, a city in South Kazakhstan, proudly thinks of itself as the Lone Star State of Central Asia.
by Sonia Smith
Wed August 7, 2013 8:00 am
(...)
Ask why this area is considered the “Texas” of Kazakhstan and you typically get some variation of the following answer: geography (located in the same south and central part of the country as the Lone Star State), cows (lots), and lawlessness (the Wild West of Kazakhstan!). To be fair, the “Texas of X” construction is one that pops up with some frequency. See Bavaria ( “the Texas of Germany” ), Mongolia ( “the Texas of Asia” ), Nigeria ( “the Texas of Africa” ). And Kazakhstan, with its 30 billion barrels of proven oil reserves , itself has been dubbed “the Texas of Central Asia.”