By Editorial Staff 
ABUJA | NOV 21, 2025: The National Universities Commission (NUC) has disclosed that some fake and unaccredited institutions award fake professorships in Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary of the NUC, Professor Abdullahi Ribadu, stated this in Abuja on Friday while receiving a report from a committee investigating the award and public use/misuse of honorary doctorate degrees by recipients in the country.
He stated that most of the unaccredited 32 higher institutions operate as honorary degree mills targeting Nigerians.
According to Ribadu, the institutions include 10 unaccredited foreign universities, four unlicensed local universities, 15 professional bodies with no degree-awarding powers, and three other non-degree-awarding institutions.
“Some of these entities even go as far as awarding fake professorships,” he said.
Ban the use ‘Dr’ by honorary doctorate recipients
Similarly, the NUC has also placed a ban on the award of honorary doctorate degrees to serving public officials, stating that the honorary degrees have been abused and misused by the recipients.
He clarified that awarding honorary degrees “is a legal responsibility of Nigerian universities.
“The law empowers the NUC to regulate both the award and the use of honorary doctorate degrees in Nigeria,” stating that only approved public or private universities are eligible to award honorary doctorate degrees.
According to the new NUC guidelines, recipients of honorary doctorate must use appropriate nomenclature such as Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa) rather than adopting the title ‘Dr’.
The NUC boss said that the use of ‘Dr’ “is reserved for holders of earned doctorates and medical professionals.”
According to him, honorary doctorates are designed to recognise outstanding service or achievements of individuals, “but unfortunately, they have increasingly been misused.”
Ribadu disclosed that the decision to ban abuse of the award of honorary doctorates was in line with the Keffi Declaration of 2012, an agreement by Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian universities to regulate the award of honorary degrees.
The declaration expressly forbids universities from awarding honorary doctorates to serving public officials and cautions recipients against using the title “Dr” without proper disclosure.
Honorary recipients using ‘Dr’ can be charged
The NUC boss said abuse and misuse of honorary doctorate degrees “is a matter of law. Using the title ‘Dr’ based on an honorary degree without clarification amounts to false representation, which is punishable under various fraud-related laws in Nigeria.”
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