Two university dons, Prof. Victor Olumekun, and Prof. Ini Oko, have criticised what they described as the fraudulent award of honorary doctorates to some Nigerians by foreign institutions.
The dons who spoke in separate interviews with Sunday PUNCH on Friday, expressed worry over the bastardisation of honorary degrees by some foreign institutions.
No fewer than 100 prominent Nigerian politicians, celebrities and clerics have bagged honorary doctorate awards popularly referred to as “honoris causa” between June 2022 and June 23, 2022, investigations has revealed.
While some of these degrees were awarded by Nigeria-based institutions, others were awarded by “affiliate” institutions, leadership and business centres in Benin Republic, United Kingdom and even the United States of America.
Speaking, Prof. Olumekun, who is a lecturer at the Adekunle Ajasin University, said the institution would never encourage awardees to refer to themselves as ‘Doctor’, adding that AAU would only award honorary doctorate degrees in recognition of public service and not cash and carry.”
He said, “For us in the university, we do not encourage honorary awardees to refer to themselves as Dr, but this is Nigeria. There are several classes of honorary doctorates. My university gives in recognition of public service. Most of the American ones are cash and carry.”
Also, Prof. Oko, a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Uyo, said, “Most of these pastors, politicians and celebrities go after these degrees because they simply want to be addressed as ‘Dr’. When you dig in further, you realise that some of these degrees are fraudulently awarded.
“Yes, we have those who are awarded to deserving individuals based on their contributions to the society but then most of the degrees awarded are those that have been purchased with money. This needs to be regulated.”
Speaking with our Sunday PUNCH, the Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Prof Gbolahan Bolarin, told our correspondent that honorary doctorates did not equal PhDs.
“Honorary one is awarded mostly based on contributions to the university community or nation while PhD is earned through research, purely based on academics.
When asked if recipients of honorary doctorates can affix PhDs to their names, he said, “No, except if the person has earned PhD prior to the award of the honorary one.”
Credit: Punch
