Nigeria's Federal Government has prohibited recipients of honorary degrees from using the "Dr" prefix in any official, academic, or professional context, declaring that doing so will henceforth be treated as academic fraud carrying legal and reputational consequences.

The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed the new policy on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while briefing State House correspondents on two Federal Executive Council approvals that had not been announced at the cabinet meeting held on April 30.

Alausa, who appeared alongside the Minister of State for Education, Prof Suwaiba Ahmad, stated that the Federal Executive Council approved a uniform policy for the award and use of honorary degrees by Nigerian universities, aimed at ending what he described as decades of indiscriminate conferral for political patronage and financial gain.

Under the policy, honorary degree recipients must place the full honorary designation after their name rather than prefix it with "Dr." The minister illustrated the approved format: "Chief Louis Clark, D.Lit. (Doctor of Literature, Honoris Causa)" and "Mrs Miriam Adamu, LL.D. Hons."

Alausa stated: "Recipients shall not prefix doctor to their names in official, academic or professional usage. Misrepresentation of honorary degrees as earned academic credentials shall be considered academic fraud and subject to legal and reputational consequences."

The policy restricts honorary degrees to four categories: Doctor of Laws (LL.D), Doctor of Letters (D.Lit), Doctor of Science (D.Sc), and Doctor of Humanities (D.Arts). Universities without active PhD awarding programmes are barred from conferring honorary degrees entirely, a measure targeting institutions less than five years old without postgraduate research programmes.

All honorary degree certificates and references must carry the words "honorary" or "Honoris Causa." The Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission will issue a circular to all vice chancellors, registrars, and governing councils. Convocation programmes will be monitored for compliance.

Alausa noted that a 2012 initiative by the Association of Vice Chancellors, known as the Keffi Declaration, had previously attempted to address the same challenge but failed due to the absence of legal backing.

"That is why we brought this to the Federal Executive Council, which now gives it legal and executive backing," he stated.

The ministry will publish an annual list of legitimate honorary degree recipients, and the National Universities Commission holds statutory authority to enforce the policy.