Plateau

Plateau State takes its name from the Jos Plateau, a highland region in central Nigeria noted for its relatively cool climate, dramatic rock formations and history as the centre of Nigeria's tin and columbite mining industry from the early twentieth century. Its capital, Jos, grew from a colonial-era mining settlement into a major city and long served as a popular tourist and conference destination, reflected in the state's nickname, "Home of Peace and Tourism". Plateau's population is highly diverse, including the Berom, Ngas, Tarok, Afizere and numerous smaller ethnic groups, alongside Hausa communities in Jos and other towns. The state was created in 1976 as Benue-Plateau State was divided, and Nasarawa State was subsequently created from its southern portion in 1996. Plateau has, since around 2001, experienced episodes of serious intercommunal and farmer-herder violence in parts of the state.

The Jos Plateau's elevated terrain has long supported a mosaic of distinct ethnic groups, including the Berom, Afizere, Anaguta, Ngas and Tarok, many of whom historically maintained small-scale, decentralised political structures suited to the hilly and defensible terrain, which offered some protection from the expansion of larger surrounding states. The discovery of alluvial tin deposits on the plateau in the early twentieth century drew British colonial mining interests and migrant labour from across Nigeria, and Jos grew rapidly as a mining and administrative centre, becoming markedly cosmopolitan in character compared with its rural hinterland. Plateau State was created in February 1976 from the former Benue-Plateau State, which was itself divided at that point into Benue and Plateau states. In 1996 Nasarawa State was carved from Plateau's southern local government areas as part of a further national state creation exercise. Since the early 2000s, Plateau, and Jos in particular, has experienced episodes of serious intercommunal violence, often intertwined with competition over land, political representation and, in rural areas, farmer-herder conflict.

Plateau State lies in central Nigeria, bordered by Bauchi and Kaduna states to the north, Nasarawa State to the south and east, and Taraba State to the south-east. Its defining feature is the Jos Plateau itself, an extensive highland region rising to between roughly 1,200 and 1,800 metres above sea level, considerably higher and cooler than most of the surrounding Nigerian lowlands, with striking granite rock formations, including balanced rock outcrops, scattered across its surface. The plateau's elevation gives it a markedly temperate climate for a tropical country, with cooler nights and a more moderate dry season than much of northern Nigeria. Rivers rising on the plateau feed into the wider Niger and Benue drainage systems. The terrain outside the main plateau descends into lower savanna land towards the state's peripheries.

Tin and columbite mining dominated Plateau State's economy through much of the twentieth century, drawing migrant labour and shaping Jos's growth as an industrial and commercial centre, though large-scale mining declined substantially from the 1970s onward, leaving numerous disused mine ponds around Jos. Agriculture remains significant, and the plateau's cooler climate allows cultivation of temperate crops, including Irish potatoes, alongside maize, guinea corn, acha and vegetables, distinguishing Plateau's farming from that of most other Nigerian states. Jos historically developed a tourism sector centred on its scenery, wildlife parks and cooler climate, and hosted numerous national conferences and institutions, though tourism has been affected by periods of insecurity. Small-scale artisanal mining of tin and other minerals continues in parts of the state.