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“Guess who is now a doctor? Me!!! I have made my mom and the rest of my family proud once again. From now on, call me Doctor Ash… Congrats to me,” Amarachi Amasi (Ashmusy) wrote on her Instagram post (archived here) on June 18, 2023.
In this post, Ashmusy announced that Prowess University, Delaware, USA, had given her an honorary doctorate in real estate management. The Tribune and The Nation newspapers reported this.
Since this event, Ashmusy has changed her name to “Dr. Ash” across social media platforms (archived here). The skitmaker and influencer with over two million Instagram and 375k TikTok followers, also created a personal website (archived here) with a bio that partly reads: “Ashmusy is a trailblazing content creator, high-drive sales influencer, and business mogul with a doctorate in philosophy in real estate.”
In Nigeria, a doctorate requires three to seven years of continuous reading, research, structured coursework, examination, and sometimes teaching, as well as high funding. These requirements are not different in other climes like the United States, where candidates also write dissertations that address a particular societal problem before being awarded one.
As there is always a solution for every problem, people have now figured out how to get a PhD without the books. This is where honorary degrees come in; there is no examination, no research, just applause and congratulations, you’re now a “Dr.”
Apart from Ashmusy, “Dr. Ash,” DUBAWA also identified several other Nigerian celebrities who, after receiving their honorary degree from different universities, now publicly flaunt the “Dr.” title without a single disclaimer.
One is Peter Okoye, a famous artist who added this title to his Instagram and X (archived here and here) after his conferment in 2021 at the Escae-Benin University in the Benin Republic. Likewise, there is Nancy Isime, an actress who generously uses the title in her social media posts (archived here) since she received hers in 2023 from the same university as Ashmusy.
Pete Edochie, a veteran Nigerian actor who received two honorary PhDs from ISTM University, Togo. He did not hesitate to display his achievement (archived here) using this title in his social media bio. Other users refer to him as “Chief Dr. Pete Edochie”, as seen here and here.
In Nigeria, it is not unusual to see entertainers, public figures, and even traditional rulers attach “Dr.” or “Prof.” to their names. This is not because they earned academic degrees, but because they were honoured by institutions with the titles. These titles appear in event flyers, social media profiles, and news headlines, often without any explanation that they are honorary.
But you may wonder, what exactly is the place of an honorary PhD in society? Does receiving one qualify you as a “Dr?” And mostly, are you breaking any law if you address yourself as a “Dr.” when your PhD wasn’t earned through fulfilling academic requirements?
This article answers your questions, among other issues.
What is a PhD, and why is it conferred?
Ropo Sekoni, a retired Professor of Literature in English and mass communication at Lincoln University, defines a PhD or Doctor of Philosophy as the highest degree an individual can obtain in a particular field of academic concentration. He said this degree is earned through years of research and rigorous study.
For example, to complete a doctorate at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, the institution says candidates “must produce significant and original research. You’ll develop critical knowledge and understanding of a particular research area. Under appropriate academic supervision, you’ll develop a significant, original piece of research, usually equivalent to 70,000 to 100,000 words.”
Prof. Sekoni’s description is similar to that of Chinyere Ecoma, a History and International Relations professor at Veritas University, Abuja.
She said, “Doctor of Philosophy means you’ve gone through the ladder. You can reason independently, and you can devise a thesis topic that can have an impact on society or even on education.”
However, this type of degree differs from an Honoris Causa degree, whose history started in the Middle Ages. The University of Oxford gave the first honorary PhD in the late 1470s to Lionel Woodville, who later became a bishop. At the time, these degrees were given to honour people or grant special privileges without needing to complete the usual academic rigour required of earned doctoral work.
In the U.S., the first honorary PhD was handed out in 1852 at Bucknell University, even before the first earned PhD by Yale in 1861. Over time, honorary PhDs became a way to recognise significant contributions or friendships. And since it was a thing in other climes, Nigeria and other African countries have not hesitated to adopt this tradition.
Does receiving an honorary doctorate qualify you as a “Dr?”
Professors Sekoni and Chinyere told DUBAWA that it is wrong for an honorary doctorate recipient to publicly use the “Dr.” title without a disclaimer.
“It is just to honour you. It is not supposed to be used as a chieftain’s title. Those people who have earned doctorates know, and they just laugh,” Prof. Ropo said.
“In the English-speaking world, nobody of substance who gets an honorary doctorate identifies himself as a Dr. You know, it is peculiar to Nigeria and a few African countries. If you are worrying about who is bastardising what, it is the receiver of that honorary degree. They give it to the presidents of nations, you know. Amadu Bello received many honorary degrees, similar to those of Obafemi Awolowo. These men didn’t habitually carry the title doctor in front of their names.”
Similarly, Prof. Chinyere said treating honorary doctorates as equal to earned ones is harmful and destructive to academic endeavour, because it reduces the PhD to “nothingness.”
She said some honorary recipients “can’t even speak English or reason properly,” which embarrasses academics.
Prof. Sekoni said the average Nigerian often assumes the honorary doctorate holder has earned a research-based PhD and therefore possesses expertise they don’t have. He added that this could mislead the public, especially in sensitive areas like medicine, law, or engineering, where decisions based on such assumptions about qualifications could have serious consequences.
Both concluded that there should be a clear line of distinction between earned doctorates and honorary awards. Chinyere emphasised that government policy should clearly define this and use a different nomenclature for honorary awards.
In Ghana, using the honorary ‘Dr’ is public deception
In June 2025, the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) banned the public use of honorary doctorate or professorship titles, describing the practice as “unethical and misleading.” The body stated that it undermines the value of legitimate academic qualifications in Ghana. It then warned that violators would face public exposure and possible legal action.
In a follow-up warning in July 2025, the Director-General of GTEC, Ahmed Jinapor, explained that academic titles such as PhD, MSc, or Bachelor’s are to be earned through rigorous, structured, and supervised educational programmes.
“This involves coursework, examinations, original research, thesis defence, and external review. For instance, if you complete successfully the course and research components specified for a PhD in mechanical engineering, it’s conferred after years of coursework, research, and successful defence of a thesis before an academic committee,” Graphic Online reported.
Ahmed told Graphics Online that an individual who uses the title of “Dr” based on an honorary award might be mistaken for a qualified medical doctor, academic, or researcher.
“In line with international best practices, the use of the title ‘Dr’ by recipients of honorary doctorates; the use of the title ‘Professor (Prof.)’ based on unverified honorary awards; and the adoption of the title ‘Professor’ through visiting roles where neither the home nor host institution has officially conferred the rank through a documented appointment process, are prohibited,” the report reads.
Ahmed said violators break Section 8(4)(d) of the Ghana Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023), and risk prosecution.
What does the law say in Nigeria?
Unlike Ghana, where the government has taken a firm stand, Nigeria has no law stopping people from publicly using honorary academic titles. The National Universities Commission (NUC) has remained largely silent, and no guidelines from the Ministry of Education or any regulatory body address the public use of honorary titles. This leaves room for confusion, misinformation, and sometimes, deception.
Attempts to hear the NUC’s stance on the situation were abortive, as the Executive Secretary, Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu, was said to be unavailable during DUBAWA’s visit. We, however, submitted a letter but have yet to receive a response at the time of this report.
Amina Miango, a lawyer based in Abuja, explained that since the law is silent on how a recipient may or may not use honorary degrees in public, people tend to use them as they please and, by so doing, mislead the public.
Amina raised another issue about unaccredited tertiary institutions that, due to the constitution’s quiet position, often confer different honorary degrees on public figures who now begin to call themselves “doctors.”
“There needs to be a clearer boundary between people who have academic PhDs and the honorary ones,” she said.
“People with honorary degrees should outrightly be banned from actually parading those degrees and calling themselves doctors, because it’s bound to mislead the public. There should be a law, like the way Ghanaians ban this, that basically says people should not append a doctor’s name in front of their name so that it does not mislead the public,” she added.
While several public figures use the honorary doctorate without differentiation, DUBAWA identified a few who put “Hon.” in brackets after using the “Dr.” title.
Examples are Nigerian actors Alexx Ekubo and Ikechukwu Ogbonna, as seen here and here.
Opeyemi Kehinde, a misinformation expert and former editor at FactcheckHub said it’d be out of place to ask recipients of honorary degrees not to use their awards. However, he also noted that such usage could be termed “misinformation” if used in a setting where it is presumed that such a person is a medically trained doctor or an academic who has earned their PhD title through a rigorous academic system.
“In such cases, the recipient of an honorary doctorate needs to emphasise that ‘I am Honorary Dr so so’ rather than just saying I am ‘Dr. so so’… so that people at such functions won’t assume that the recipient is speaking from a professional point of view,” he clarified.
Opeyemi further said the media, public institutions, and MCs at events should provide context when introducing recipients of honorary doctorates to avoid misleading the public. He also advised the recipients to provide context when publicly using the title.
