In a decisive move to protect the integrity of academic titles, the Federal Government of Nigeria officially banned the use of the “Dr.” prefix by recipients of honorary doctorate degrees on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, announced the policy following a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, declaring that the misrepresentation of honorary awards as earned academic credentials will now be treated as academic fraud.
The “Honoris Causa” New Rules
The new directive aims to end the “commercialization and politicization” of academic honors that has seen degrees awarded for financial patronage or political gain.
- Prefix Ban: Recipients are strictly prohibited from using “Dr.” before their names in official, academic, or professional contexts.
- Approved Suffixes: Instead, the honorary nature must be clearly stated after the name. For example: Chief Louis Clark, D.Lit. (Honoris Causa) or Mrs. Miriam Adamu, LL.D. (Hons).
- Eligible Institutions: Only universities with active, established PhD-awarding programs are permitted to confer honorary degrees. Newer institutions (less than five years old) or those without doctoral curricula are barred from the practice.
- The “Keffi Declaration”: This policy gives legal teeth to the 2012 “Keffi Declaration” by Vice-Chancellors, which was previously ignored due to a lack of executive backing.
Enforcement and Sanctions
The government is not treating this as a mere suggestion. The National Universities Commission (NUC) has been mandated to enforce the following:
- Monitoring: Convocation ceremonies will be monitored to ensure compliance with the new guidelines.
- Annual Register: The Ministry of Education will publish a yearly list of legitimate honorary degree recipients to prevent title inflation.
- Legal Action: Individuals or institutions found misrepresenting honorary titles as earned academic degrees will face “legal and reputational consequences.”
Restricted Categories
Under the new uniform policy, Nigerian universities are limited to awarding only four specific categories of honorary degrees:
- LL.D (Doctor of Laws)
- D.Lit (Doctor of Letters)
- D.Sc (Doctor of Science)
- D.Arts (Doctor of Humanities)
