The Federal Government has banned recipients of honorary degrees from using the “Dr” title, in a move aimed at curbing decades of abuse in Nigeria’s academic honours system.
Education Minister Tunji Alausa announced the directive on Wednesday at a media briefing in Abuja, disclosing that the Federal Executive Council approved the decision at its April 30 meeting.
Alausa said the policy was long overdue, citing a troubling pattern in which universities had turned honorary degrees into instruments of political patronage and financial gain. He noted that serving public officials had also been recipients a practice he described as a violation of the basic ethics governing such awards.
“The recent trend has revealed a growing abuse and politicisation of this academic privilege,” the minister said.Going forward, universities must obtain approval from the Nigerian Universities Commission before conferring honorary degrees.
Institutions that flout the directive will face sanctions, and Vice Chancellors have been directed to immediately streamline their conferment processes.
The decision signals a broader federal push to sanitise Nigeria’s higher education sector and restore public confidence in academic distinctions — titles that, for too long, have been traded for influence rather than earned through scholarship.
