Land and Labour Migrations in Central and Southern Plateau: A Study into the Latent Potentials for Conflict and Ideologies of Identity in Quaan Pan and Mangu Local Government Areas of Plateau State, Nigeria.

Henry Gyang Mang
University of Jos, Nigeria

ABSTRACT
This paper is part of a larger piece of work, which researches on potentials for conflict in Plateau State. The study is on Quaan Pan and Mangu local government areas, one of the areas (Quaan Pan) affected by conflict within the past seven years, while the other not. The significance of this paper rests on the neo-potentials of conflict within Quaan Pan due to migrations from Mangu, and the potential crisis of identity amongst the migrants. The specific area of study is a village called Ampiya, with a significantly large population of migrant farmers from within and outside Plateau State. Methodologies used were, interviews (both individual and focus group) and questionnaires.    

The study revealed that although there has been peaceful coexistence between various ethnicities in Quaan Pan, most of the Mwagavwul (the largest in population of migrants in the village) have found it difficult to identify definitively with either Quaan Pan or Mangu as their permanent areas of residence due to the fact that they are termed as tenants in the land they have lived for a long time  in Quaan Pan, and analogously in Mangu, are seen as visiting relations who although having  significant rights to ethnic and family identity, have forfeited all rights to land and certain privileges. This has left many of them, most especially the younger upcoming generations with doubts and fears of their future.