CORBON, NIOB canvass research development to boost housing

PROFESSIONALS under the aegis of Association of Builders in Academia ( ABA), have urged its members to ensure development of research products that would positively impact housing sector.

Chairman of the association, Prof. Martin Dada, gave the advice at the maiden edition of its Advancing Research and Professionalism in Building’. The forum, which was held virtually, attracted participants that include educators, top academics and researchers in various aspects of the building profession.

Welcoming participants, Dada stressed that through impactful intellectual contributions, members would enhance the society academically and professionally at both national and global levels, through research, publications and mentoring of upcoming academics.

The Chairman, Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria ( CORBON), Prof. Kabir Bala, who is also the Vice- Chancellor of Ahmadu

Bello University, Zaria challenged the participants to be poised towards high quality research output.

He said stakeholders have come to realise that research outputs and publications are better judged on the basis of quality rather than quantity. Bala noted that identifying problems to be solved in research was fundamental, central and key to all research endeavours.

According to him, accompanying methodology are mechanical and ancillary issues. He emphasised sourcing of research grants as ways to augment the traditional but insufficient funding windows available to universities.

He advanced that efforts and attention should be focused on educating members on accessing grants for research purposes

President, Nigerian institute of Building ( NIOB), Kunle Awobodu, tasked participants on the need for actionable research to address challenges of local materials for building construction. According to him, the COVID- 19 lockdown, which affected importation, exposed the vulnerability of the building industry. However, he said the vulnerability could be harnessed and turned into opportunities for local materials production.

In their contributions, the two resource persons, Prof. Godwin Idoro and Prof. Isaac Odesola, who were respectively supervisor and winner of the ‘ Nigerian Universities Doctoral Thesis Award ( NUDTAS) for the Best Thesis in the Discipline of Environmental Sciences in Nigerian Universities, for 2012, explained that it is fundamental to properly identify, define and communicate the research problem.

According to Idoro, a research problem can be obtained by checking gaps in literature and areas for further research identified in earlier research works.

“A research problem could also emanate from a nagging challenge in the society such as traffic grid lock in our cities such as Lagos,” Idoro said.

For Odesola, the theoretical underpinning for research and the important place of the worldview or perspective of the researcher and the context of the research matters.