The National Universities Commission (NUC) has stopped Nigerian universities from awarding honorary doctorate degrees to serving public officials.
The Commission also announced plans to crack down on illegal universities issuing fake degrees across the country.
NUC Executive Secretary, Professor Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu, revealed this in Abuja on Friday while receiving a committee report on the award and misuse of honorary doctorates in Nigeria.
He explained that the decision was taken to address the growing abuse of honorary degrees nationwide, especially by public officials still in service.
Ribadu noted that alarming discoveries from a nationwide investigation showed widespread misuse of such degrees by recipients.
“These degrees are meant to recognise outstanding service or achievements, but unfortunately, they have increasingly been misused,” he said.
He added that the situation has been worsened by the emergence of unaccredited and illegal institutions—both local and foreign—operating as honorary degree mills.
According to Professor Ribadu, the investigation exposed several violations of the Keffi Declaration of 2012, an agreement reached by Vice-Chancellors to regulate the award of honorary degrees.
The declaration explicitly prohibits universities from awarding honorary doctorates to serving public officials and warns against using the title “Dr” without proper clarification.
“This is not just a matter of ethics; it is a matter of law. Using the title ‘Dr’ based on an honorary degree without clarification amounts to false representation, punishable under various fraud-related laws in Nigeria,” he said.
He stressed that misuse of honorary titles damages the credibility of universities and erodes public confidence in legitimate academic qualifications.
The report identified 32 organisations operating as honorary degree mills in Nigeria. These include 10 unaccredited foreign universities, 4 unlicensed local universities, 15 professional bodies without degree-awarding powers, and 3 non-degree-awarding institutions.
Some of these bodies, the NUC noted, even confer fake professorship titles.
Ribadu clarified that only approved public or private universities are authorised to award honorary doctorates, and even then, recipients must use correct nomenclature such as Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa), rather than simply adopting the title “Dr”, which is reserved for those with earned doctorates and medical practitioners.
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