The Federal Government has prohibited the conferment of honorary doctorate degrees on serving public officials as part of new measures aimed at sanitising the process and curbing the growing abuse of such titles in the country.
The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu, announced the directive in Abuja on Friday while receiving the report of a committee set up to investigate the award and misuse of honorary degrees across Nigeria.
Ribadu said the Commission was forced to act after a nationwide inquiry revealed alarming violations in how honorary degrees were being conferred and publicly used.
He noted that an increasing number of unaccredited local and foreign institutions had turned into “honorary degree mills,” contributing to the misuse of the titles.
According to him, many of the findings breached the Keffi Declaration of 2012, an agreement by Nigerian Vice-Chancellors that forbids universities from awarding honorary doctorates to serving public officials and warns recipients against adopting the title “Dr” without proper clarification.
He stressed that misrepresenting an honorary degree as an earned academic qualification amounts to false representation and is punishable under Nigerian fraud laws, adding that such misuse undermines public trust in genuine academic achievements.
The Commission’s report identified 32 entities operating as honorary degree mills, including 10 unaccredited foreign universities, four unlicensed local institutions, 15 professional bodies with no mandate to award degrees, and three other organisations without degree-awarding powers.
Some of these entities, the NUC disclosed, even conferred fake professorships.
Ribadu reiterated that only approved public or private universities are legally empowered to award honorary doctorate degrees, and recipients must use appropriate nomenclature such as Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa) instead of the title “Dr,” which is reserved for holders of earned doctorates and medical practitioners.
Details later…
