Awka –  A don, Prof. Charlse Okigbo, on Thursday called for social science research approach to problems facing the Nigerian contemporary society.

Okigbo, a professor of Mass Communication at the North Dakota State University in the U.S., made the call in a paper entitled “Data Gathering in the Real World Social Science” in Awka.

The don, represented by Dr Peter Ezeh of the Sociology Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, presented the paper at the Eminent Persons Lecture Series of the Faculty of Social Science, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.

He said the problems included global warming, new deleterious health challenges and ever increasing population.

He said relevant and accurate data gathering for informed analyses were crucial to obtaining answers to address some of the problems of the society.

Okigbo said some of the scientific methods of data gathering required observational methods, ethnography, participant observation and participatory action research, participant action research and experimental methods.

Others methods are survey methods, personal interviews, group focus discussions, mail questionnaires, telephone surveys and the use of social media.

According to him, some of the methods can be difficult in the Nigerian setting and none is superior to the other.

“The problems of our contemporary society deserve concerted and varied social science research approaches to address.

“Nigeria is not shielded from big data, so our social science students and scholars must get on the act at our own level,” he said.

Prof. Dung Pam Sha of the Political Science Department, University of Jos, in his paper entitled “Ethical Issues in Social Science Research in Nigeria,” decried the poor teaching of research in the country.

He said there was need to eschew violation of the ethics of social research.

Sha said the common violations in social science research included principle of informed consent, plagiarism, lack of peer review and poor data management.

He called for more funding and enabling environment for effective social science research in the country.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria, the private sector and development partners must find a way of enacting an environment that propels all forms of research.

”This will entail the introduction of empowerment schemes, regulatory schemes and sustainability schemes,” Sha said.

The two-day maiden lecture series entitled “Research issues in Social Science,” also had other presenters like Prof. Isidore Obot of the psychology department at the University of Calabar and Hyacith Ichokwu of the economics department at the UNN. (NAN)