Builders Canvass Excellence in Research for Societal Progress

Professional builders in higher institutions under the auspices of Association of Builders in Academia, ABA, hosted participants to the maiden edition of its lecture series on ‘Advancing Research and Professionalism in Building’. The lectures, which held virtually, attracted participants who included educators, top academics and researchers in various aspects of the Building profession.

Professor Martin Dada, the Chairman of ABA, welcomed the participants to the programme indicating the rationale for the lecture series: members making positive impact on the society academically and professionally at both national and global levels through research, publications and mentoring of upcoming academics.

The Chairman of the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON), Professor Kabir Bala, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria challenged the participants on the need for high quality research output. He explained that stakeholders have come to realise that research outputs and publications are better judged on the basis of quality than quantity. He further explained that identifying problem to be solved in research is fundamental, central and key to all research endeavours; the accompanying methodology are mechanical and ancillary issues. He equally spoke on the sourcing of research grants as ways to augment the traditional but insufficient funding windows available to universities. While commending the initiative of the start of the lectures, he suggested that efforts and attention should also be focused on educating members on accessing grants for research purposes

The President of the Nigerian institute of Building, Builder Kunle Awobodu, charged participants on the subsisting 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 Nigerian building industry. The vulnerability can be harnessed and turned into opportunity for local materials production, Awobodu further said

The two resource persons for the lecture, Professor Godwin Idoro and Professor Isaac Odesola were respectively the supervisor and the winner of the ‘Nigerian Universities Doctoral Thesis Award (NUDTAS) for the Best Thesis in the Discipline of Environmental Sciences’ in all Nigerian Universities for the Year 2012. Both resource persons dwelt on the topic: Achieving Excellence in Research for the Built Environment.

Professor Idoro explained the fundamental place of properly identifying, defining and communicating the research problem. According to him, a research problem can be obtained by checking gaps in literature and areas for further research identified in earlier research. 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 posited. Odesola addressed the theoretical underpinning for research and the important place of the world view or perspective of the researcher and the context of the research. He equally explored other areas as quantitative and qualitative data analysis among others.