NEW TELEGRAPH
•The award has lost its essence, says Prof Ezeibe
•It’s now bestowed on unqualified persons for pecuniary reasons –Dr Ezoem
Universities confer honourary doctorate degrees to recognise people for their achievements and contributions to society. It is generally considered the highest honour an institution can bestow upon an individual. Recipients do not have to be graduates of the university to receive one, though some are. Isioma Madike, in this report highlights the misgivings of scholars and other relevant stakeholders in the higher education sector in Nigeria, who have expressed displeasure that honourary degrees are being commercialised and awarded to undeserving individuals by some universities.
Preamble
It has become worrisome that honoris causa, better known as honourary doctorate, is being given to underserving individuals. Many now frown at the rate Nigerian universities are churning out and splashing them on “the highest bidders”, among politicians and political office holders, celebrities, business owners and clerics with little or no consideration for pedigree, character and contributions to society.
The craze for titles, they say, has made such degrees to become less than honourable. The situation has become so bad that even people of questionable character have joined the fray, making it lose its essence.
This may be why scholars and other relevant stakeholders in the higher education sector in Nigeria have expressed displeasure that honorary degrees are being commercialised and awarded to unworthy individuals by some universities. Before now, universities confer honourary doctorate degrees to recognise people for their achievements and contributions to society.
It was generally considered the highest honour an institution could bestow on an individual with such persons not necessarily graduates of the university, though some are.
However, honoris causa degrees are not considered of the same standing as substantive degrees earned by the standard academic processes of courses and original research, except perhaps where the recipient has demonstrated an appropriate level of academic scholarship that would ordinarily qualify him or her for the award of a substantive degree.
Recipients of honourary degrees typically wear the same academic attires as recipients of substantive degrees, although there are a few exceptions in some countries. For instance, honourary graduates at the University of Cambridge wear the appropriate full-dress gown but not the hood, and those at the University of St Andrews wear a black cassock instead of the usual full-dress gown.
Academics react
A professor of Veterinary Medicine and Clinical Virology at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Abia State, Maduike Ezeibe, told this reporter that honourary degrees have not only lost their essence but that “they make the public look at the recipients as criminals”, which he said shouldn’t have been so.
Ezeibe said: “I think that honourary degrees have not only lost their essence, they now make the public look at the recipients as criminals, but that shouldn’t have been so. There are now two classes in terms of recipients of honourary doctorate degrees.
“There are those who deserve them and are being begged to accept and those who buy them. However, those who buy the degrees do so because of an inferiority complex or due to the intent to deceive the public that they are worth what they are not.
“Honourary PhDs should be reserved for people who have made remarkable inventions in science, commerce, politics or other forms of learning. Most people who make those invaluable contributions to knowledge may not be rich. So, to honour them should not cost them money. Most people no longer respect honourary degrees. I’d urge the government to start regulating the award of honourary degrees in order to restore the dignity it connotes.”
Dr Nwanze Ignatius Ezoem, former Provost of Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, Delta State, in his reaction also said it is unfortunate that honourary degrees and certificates that were meant for individuals who have distinguished themselves in specific areas of endeavour, is today being bestowed on unqualified persons for pecuniary reasons.
Ezoem decried a situation where it is now money for hand, honourary degree in kitty, saying it is appalling to see people of questionable character being addressed as Doctors. He said it is ironic that this wave is not found in civilised climes.
“What we are discussing here is part of the problem with Nigeria. The nation seems to be heading towards the edge of the doomsday abyss. It is no longer news that our education system of yesteryear has lost its glorious steam and vibrancy. Today, you see a first class graduate, who cannot define or describe the basic concepts of his supposed area of specialisation.
“It is not also uncommon to see every Dick and Harry brandishing degrees and certificates from our various institutions of learning. This is the fallout of a demonically corrupt and inglorious society. And the economy that has become so brutishly bastardised didn’t help matter.
“It is unfortunate that honourary degrees and certificates that were meant for individuals, who had distinguished themselves in specific areas of endeavour, are now being bestowed on unqualified persons in exchange for money. It is now money for hand, honourary degree in kitty. You now see people of questionable character being addressed as doctor (Dr).
“In fact, certificates are no longer valuable in Nigeria as every aspect of the nation’s profile has become corrupted. Until we get a serious Political, Social and Cultural Revolution that will usher in a rebirth, we may be waiting for Godot if we think things will abate soon.
“It is only ironic that this wave is not found in other civilised climes. Only God will help salvage the situation,” he added.
In his reaction, the Chief Student Officer of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Boniface Odey, believes honourary degrees are no longer relevant because, according to him, it is not always merited.
“In my opinion, it is not very relevant because it is not merited. We all know that Nigerians love having titles, especially to have that title Dr attached to their name; they just love it but there is nothing very special about honourary degree awards.
“It’s a way of cajoling people as if they belong. Maybe some people even pay for it; that’s what I think. Nigerians love acquiring those titles, those prefixes before their names is what they are looking for. The titles go to the highest bidders because they will not just look at somebody passing by and honour him or her.
“In the true essence, you must have done something for that university before they would give you honourary degree. There are people who are studying hard to get this PhD for one reason or the other but they are finding it difficult to achieve.
“But we have found ourselves in a situation where somebody is sitting in the comfort of his or her room; they call and give him or her honourary award. So, it’s actually not an earned accolade to your name. You got it on a platter of gold just because Nigerians love titles. The reason you hear somebody add, Doctor, Pastor, Chief, Mr to their name.
“What does this mean?” Odey asked.
He added: “In the first instance, I don’t know the essence of honourary degree awards, frankly speaking. All I know is that if they award such degrees, it is to lure you for help, for funds or something, so it is for the highest bidders. I won’t boast of having travelled and resided in other countries to say that I’ve seen it anywhere.
“I only travel to some countries and come back. So, I don’t know of things that happen there but the Nigerian scenario that I know, that is what I think. I think it should be jettisoned. There is no point giving people honourary award. What does it add to their name? What does it add to the quality of education in that university?”
However, a Senior lecturer at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Dr Olugbenga Emidun, has a different view. He believes that honorary degrees are being given by universities, and, according to him, it’s about what you have been able to do in society.
He said: “I don’t think it’s a thing that one should go an extra mile to get; it’s about what you have been able to do in the society. Honestly, that’s how it should be. The university will look at your contribution in the society before conferring such an honour.
“At the Federal University of Technology, Akure, for instance, you can’t buy it. That is the truth, and it will be very bad for me if I stay in FUTA and be talking about what is happening in other parts of the country. But it should be on merit and I want to believe that is how it is done in other universities.”
A former Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufai, had, at the meeting of Vice-Chancellors of Federal Universities, Rectors and Provosts of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, cautioned on the proliferation of honourary doctorate degrees in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
In her argument, the minister said that apart from the preponderance of the awards, the government was concerned with the eligibility criteria and the credibility of the recipients which have both diminished its real essence, thereby tarnishing the image of the nation’s education sector.
She then called on vice-chancellors to restore the good tradition and avoid making it an all-comers affair as convocation ceremonies are all about graduating students, which should take pre-eminence. She held that activities such as fund-raising and establishment of endowment funds should be scrapped from convocation ceremonies.
Professor Rufai had also contemplated suspending outright the conferment of these awards by federal tertiary institutions
Before then, the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU) had lamented that the number of recipients of these degrees had become uncontrollably high. They had also fretted over a practice where some recipients were presented with the degrees in absentia. The Vice-Chancellors had also addressed the apparent abuse of the title “Dr” by honourary awardees, who had not conducted any research work to earn the title.
Professor Michael Faborode, the then secretary-general of the association and former vice-chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, had, at the time, also cautioned that honourary degree awardees are not supposed to use the title “Dr”, which he said was reserved for academic PhD holders. It was “unconventional and, therefore, not allowed”, Faborode had said.
It was in this light that another professor and dean of the College of Management and Social Sciences at Covenant University in Ota, Rowland Worlu, noted that the ability of an individual to sponsor a university’s programme shouldn’t be a criterion for awarding such a degree.
In a chat with the University World News, Worlu had said: “We should be interested in the character and the pedigree of the person to receive this award. You should be a role model in your chosen area and, even if you have made it in terms of money, we should be interested in the path you followed to make that money.”
Another professor, Chinyere Egwuogu, was also quoted to have said that universities should detach pecuniary benefit from honourary degrees and be honest in selecting who is deserving of the honour to encourage patriotism and good services to humanity. According to her, a honourary degree, as the term implies, should be given to “honourable people in society, not just any riff-raff”.
“It is being abused. People who don’t deserve it are getting it just because they can donate money. It should be tied to achievements, particularly in relation to education; people who have made marks in the educational circle either by investing in research, granting people scholarships, helping indigent but brilliant students, instituting grants for universities and helping to expand the infrastructure of a university,” She added.
Former Governor of Lagos State and ex-Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, had in the past also decried the abuse of honourary degrees by universities in Nigeria. He had turned down 17 of such award offers between 2007 and 2015.
Fashola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), had stated that he believed that such degrees must be conferred on awardees based on merit and not because they occupy political offices or have socio-economic power.
According to him, “We took that decision because truly the idea of honourary degree is an important building block of society and once we throw those blocks away or make them unenviable then the purpose for it is lost. In my eight years in office, I had 17 offers, and I didn’t take one. I told them to wait until I was out of the office and if they still found me worthy they should then come back, and when I was out of the office only one came back.
“The point I want to make is that we have to encourage our children to work hard. What have these honorees of the universities done to deserve the honour? What of those who have become undeserving, will you go back and tell them to return the degrees, that they don’t deserve it anymore?”
Historical origins
The earliest honourary degree on record was awarded to Lionel Woodville in the late 1470s by the University of Oxford. He later became Bishop of Salisbury. In the late 16th century, the granting of honourary degrees became quite common, especially on the occasion of royal visits to Oxford or Cambridge.
On the visit of James I to Oxford in 1605, for example, 43 members of his retinue (15 of whom were earls or barons) received the degree of Master of Arts, and the Register of Convocation explicitly states that these were full degrees, carrying the usual privileges, such as voting rights in Convocation and Congregation.
In the United States, the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree was first conferred as a honourary degree at Bucknell University in 1852; not until 1861 did Yale University award the first earned PhD, becoming the first American university to do so. Over 100 institutions in the United States conferred honorary PhD degrees in the 19th century to more than 100 recipients.
However, the practice of awarding the PhD as a honourary degree drew condemnation from organisations such as the American Philological Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the board of regents of the University of the State of New York in 1897, prohibited any university in the state from conferring an honorary PhD.
By 2001, about 21 U.S. states had begun allowing public schools to grant honourary high school diplomas to military veterans under a programme called “Operation Recognition”. In Ohio, it was unclear whether public schools had the legal authority to grant them until July 12, 2001, when Governor Bob Taft signed a bill allowing public school districts to grant them to honourably discharged veterans of World War II.Lakota East High School is believed to have awarded the first such diplomas to a group of 20 veterans in May of that year.
Modern practice
Honourary degrees are usually awarded at regular graduation ceremonies, at which the recipients are often invited to make a speech of acceptance before the assembled faculty and graduates—an event which often forms the highlight of the ceremony. Generally, universities nominate several persons each year for honourary degrees; these nominations usually go through several committees before receiving approval.
Nominees are generally not told until a formal approval and invitation are made; often it is perceived that the system is shrouded in secrecy, and occasionally seen as political and controversial. On occasions, organisations had also been awarded honourary doctorates.
•Additional report by Regina Otokpa (Abuja)
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN NEW TELEGRAPH
