The Federal Government’s ban on honorary degree holders using the “Dr” prefix has failed to address the use of the title by Nigerians who received them from foreign institutions.
On May 6, 2026, the Federal Government, through the Minister of Education and the Federal Executive Council (FEC), finalised an official ban on honorary degree holders prefixing “Dr” to their names.
While the ban and the National Universities Commission (NUC) guidelines that preceded it appear to be a solution, they only addressed awardees from Nigerian universities.
Recall that in August 2025, DUBAWA’s report highlighted how Nigerian public figures were using the “Dr” prefix to mislead the public after receiving honorary doctorate awards.
At the time, our findings established that Nigeria had no legal position or official law to stop anyone from using honorary titles to claim academic clout.
The report also noted that several public figures spotlighted in DUBAWA’s publication received their awards from foreign institutions.
The loophole the ban leaves open
The NUC’s jurisdiction covers Nigerian universities. However, that is where the loophole lies.
Public figures like Peter Okoye, Ashmusy, Nancy Isime, and Pete Edochie, identified in DUBAWA’s original publication, received their honorary degrees from universities in the United States, Benin, and Togo.
Meanwhile, the NUC has no authority over those institutions, and the FEC ban contains no provision that extends its reach to foreign-conferred awards. These individuals may continue using the “Dr” prefix without violating the new policy.
Amina Miango, a lawyer based in Abuja who spoke to DUBAWA during the original investigation, had flagged this dimension well before the ban. She noted that unaccredited foreign institutions often confer honorary degrees on public figures, who then begin to call themselves doctors.
“And since the law was silent, no one could stop them,” she said. However, the new ban does not change that silence.
Opeyemi Kehinde, a misinformation expert and former editor at FactcheckHub, had also warned that using the “Dr” title without context qualifies as misinformation when it leads audiences to assume the holder is a medically trained doctor or a research-qualified academic.
That risk remains under the current framework for foreign honorary degree holders.