Okonjo-Award: Yale University Responds To Withdraw Call

Yale has never revoked an honorary degree,’

A spokesperson for Yale revealed exclusively to
Pulse that the university has never revoked an
honorary degree and does not intend to do so now.

Nigerians who are seeking the revocation of Finance
Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s honorary doctorate
from Yale University might see their aims frustrated
as the institution has no plans of withdrawing the
award.


A spokesperson for Yale revealed exclusively to
Pulse that the university has never revoked an
honorary degree and does not intend to do so now.

The petition for the degree to be revoked was
started three days ago by Sunday Iwalaiye, a
Nigerian resident in the US, and has now gained
more than 5,000 signatures.
“We are aware of both an online petition to revoke
and a second petition in support of the honorary
degree,” Karen Peart, Deputy Press Secretary for
the Yale Office of Public Affairs & Communications,
told Pulse via email on Friday, May 22, 2015.
“The university has never revoked an honorary
degree,” she added.

Peart also said that the award given to Okonjo-
Iweala “joins others that have recognized her
efforts over more than three decades to secure
debt relief, promote food security, and foster
economic and social development.”

The petition urging Yale to ignore calls for the
withdrawal of the award was started two days ago
by one Valentine Onwuka and has so far gotten
1,690 signatures.

In 2014, Yale was also
asked by many, including its
own alumni, to revoke an honorary doctorate
granted to Switzerland billionaire Stephan
Schmidheiny, who was found guilty in 2012 of
creating an asbestos environmental disaster which
caused about 2,000 deaths in Italy.

Yale refused the request saying that “the revocation
of an honorary degree would be unprecedented.”

Dr Okonjo-Iweala was named a Doctor of Humane
Letters on Monday, May 18, 2015 during Yale's
Commencement ceremony