FG Bans Honorary Degree Recipients From Using ‘Dr’ Title in Nigeria – What We Know

The Federal Government has banned recipients of honorary degrees from prefixing “Dr” to their names in official, academic, and professional usage, declaring the practice a misrepresentation of academic credentials.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, announced the directive on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, alongside the Minister of State for Education, Suwaiba Ahmad.
According to Alausa, the decision followed the approval of a new uniform policy by the Federal Executive Council regulating the award and use of honorary degrees by Nigerian universities.
He said the policy was introduced to address what the government described as the growing abuse and politicisation of honorary doctorate awards.
“The recent trend we’ve seen with the award of honorary degrees has revealed a growing abuse and politicisation of this academic privilege,” the minister said.
“We’ve seen awards being used for political patronage, for financial gain, as well as the conferral of awards on serving public officials, which, as part of the ethics of honorary degree awards, should not happen.”
Under the new regulation, recipients of honorary degrees will no longer be allowed to use the title “Dr” before their names. Instead, they are required to indicate the honorary nature of the award after their names.
Giving examples, Alausa said recipients may write their names as “Chief Louis Clark, D.Lit. (Honoris Causa)” or “Mrs Miriam Adamu, LL.D. Hons.”
He stressed that the format clearly distinguishes honorary awards from earned academic qualifications.
“Recipients shall not prefix doctor to their names in official, academic or professional usage,” he stated.
The minister further warned that misrepresenting honorary degrees as earned academic credentials would henceforth be regarded as academic fraud and could attract legal and reputational consequences.
The policy also limits the categories of honorary degrees Nigerian universities can confer to four: Doctor of Laws (LL.D), Doctor of Letters (D.Lit), Doctor of Science (D.Sc), and Doctor of Humanities (D.Arts).
In addition, universities without active PhD-awarding programmes have been barred from conferring honorary degrees.

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