The Federal Government has officially banned the conferment of honorary doctorate degrees to serving public officials. The announcement was made by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu, on Friday.

Prof. Ribadu made the declaration while receiving a report from a committee investigating the award and public use of honorary degrees in Nigeria. The ban comes in response to widespread misuse of such degrees and alarming findings from a nationwide investigation.

“These degrees are meant to recognise outstanding service or achievements, but unfortunately, they have increasingly been misused,” Ribadu said.

The NUC investigation also highlighted the proliferation of unaccredited and illegal institutions, both domestic and foreign, operating as honorary degree mills. Findings revealed numerous violations of the Keffi Declaration of 2012, an agreement among Nigerian university vice-chancellors to regulate the award of honorary degrees.

The declaration explicitly forbids universities from awarding honorary doctorates to serving public officials and cautions recipients against using the title “Dr” without proper disclosure. Prof. Ribadu emphasized that misuse of honorary titles constitutes false representation, which is punishable under Nigeria’s fraud-related laws.

He warned that such practices undermine the credibility of Nigerian universities and diminish public trust in genuine academic qualifications.