CREATION OF PAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA IN 1980 AND THE IMPLICATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS RE-ORGANISATIONS ON INTER-ETHNIC RELATIONS IN QUAAN-PAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

The creation of Pan Local Government Area in 1980 was one of the Local Administration re-organisation policies of post colonial Government. Its proscription in 1984 was a relief to the People of Namu and Dokan-Tofa who felt dominated and suppressed in the defunct Pan Local Government Area. The re-organisations that followed provided them an opportunity to request for local Government Areas of their choices. The requests assumed a dimension of inter ethnic conflict and created a diatribe that led to the various conflicts in Quaan-Pan Local Government Area. The paper examined the creation and proscription of Pan Local Government Area in 1980 and 1984 respectively, the various requests for separate Local Government Areas and analysed the paths and patterns the requests were made. This is to expose why Dokan-Tofa joined Shendam Local Government Area in another re-organisation and Namu, in series of demands joined Kwande in requests for Quaan Local Government Area while the Kofyar/Pan group resisted the joined requests and this has pitched the people in re-organisations related conflicts that has been sustained. Oral and archival materials among other relevant sources form the basis of data in this research while historical analysis was employed for the discussion on the matter and to suggest ways by which self-determination and separation can be harmoniously achieved.