THE COMPLEXITIES AND POSSIBILITIES OF ACHIEVING RESEARCH OBJECTIVITY IN A CONFLICT DOMAIN: A CASE STUDY OF THE NIGER DELTA REGION

This paper examines the complexities and possibilities of achieving research objectivity in a conflict domain, with special focus on Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The complexities and possibilities of research objectivity in conflict domain have attracted the attention of scholars who seek to have an agreement on the research rules and ethic and how the researcher could conform with these ethics without sympathy or bias in reporting the findings and how the events occurred in the face of conflict to generate and manage the research data objectively to draw conclusions of the study is the central concern of this paper. The paper adopted both primary and secondary source of data collection. The primary method was survey with the supplementary secondary literature which was utilized with a shared experience of renowned elder statesmen and stakeholders through oral discussions/interviews and administration of questionnaires to the respondents on Niger Delta conflict. The paper also identified the complexities and possibilities in relation to research methodological tools adopted, research errors that must be avoided, the nature of research subject and questions as well as best practices of a researcher to strive for ‘objectivity’ in terms of his/her levels of neutrality in achieving balanced judgement on the issues being analysed. The paper revealed that research objectivity can be compromised due to the confusion that may arise from lines of separation between the preferences of the researcher and the politics surrounding the issues of the research, but the researcher’s research judgement is still very possible to achieve.