Decolonising Sociological Methodology: An Original Epistemological Framework for Indigenous Social Research in Nigeria

Nigerian sociological research continues to be predominantly conducted using methodological frameworks developed in European and North American contexts, producing systematic epistemological distortions when applied to Nigerian social realities, knowledge systems, and research relationships. This doctoral study makes an original epistemological contribution by developing a decolonised sociological methodology framework for indigenous social research in Nigeria. The framework, termed the African Relational Inquiry Model, is built through three interconnected doctoral projects: a critical genealogy of how colonial social survey methods shaped the problematic of Nigerian sociology; a systematic comparative analysis of methodological approaches used in Nigerian sociological publications between 2014 and 2024 using meta-analysis; and original fieldwork testing alternative methodological practices in three community research contexts in Ogun, Borno, and Enugu States over two years. The African Relational Inquiry Model proposes original departures from conventional sociology in five dimensions: reconstituting researcher-participant relationships through communal ownership of research design; validating oral tradition and proverb as legitimate sociological data forms; incorporating ancestral temporal frameworks in social causality analysis; privileging collective over individual units of sociological analysis; and building ethical accountability to research communities as a primary rather than secondary obligation. The model is validated through reflexive application in the three fieldwork contexts, with documentation of both its contributions and its productive tensions with conventional standards. The doctoral study constitutes a foundational epistemological contribution to the emerging decolonisation of Nigerian social science. Keywords: decolonisation, sociological methodology, indigenous research, epistemology, African sociology.