Researched by Samuel Nii Adjetey
Hassan Ayariga, the founder and presidential candidate of the All People’s Congress (APC), months back came under scrutiny after the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) directed him to immediately cease using the academic title “Dr.”
The letter addressed to the leader of the APC, as reported by the state-owned Daily Graphic newspaper, requested a couple of documents to prove the legitimacy of his title.
The controversy surrounding Ayariga’s doctorates has deepened with some social media users questioning the awarding institution’s integrity and credibility.
Amid the public backlash, Hassan Ayariga, on July 16, 2025, shared a picture on Facebook where he is displaying a doctorate certificate from Reagan National University, with a caption which partly read;
“I am Dr. Hassan Ayariga. Next President to lead Ghana to the true land of freedom and justice in 2028. Power to the People.”
This public declaration piqued the interest of GhanaFact, prompting an open-source intelligence (OSINT) investigation into the university and the authenticity of the degree.
In this report, we detail our findings on Reagan National University.
The Reagan National University
GhanaFact’s initial keyword search for “Reagan National University” on Google found no live website of the university.
Further investigation by GhanaFact led to a report from the Des Moines Register, a United States-based news channel, on Reagan University.
The exposé published on February 15, 2020, titled “This college was accredited by a DeVos-sanctioned group. We couldn’t find evidence of students or faculty” revealed that despite holding accreditation, the university exhibited no observable signs of higher learning.
According to the report, it found no students, classrooms and no faculty, broken links on its website, and empty office suites at its listed addresses. The university’s only social media mention, according to the report, was an X post by a user showing Hassan Ayariga in the company of two white men, receiving an honorary degree.
“The college’s only appearance on Twitter: Two people posted a picture of a Ghanaian politician receiving an honorary degree from the college. The official had been accused of having a fake doctoral degree by an electoral commission in Ghana, although he denied it”, the report partly stated.
This investigation also scrutinised the university’s accreditor, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools (ACICS), which had a history of accrediting colleges that later closed, and whose federal recognition had been previously stripped and then reinstated.
“The agency in question, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools, has a history of approving questionable colleges, with devastating consequences. It accredited ITT Tech, Corinthian Colleges and Brightwood College, massive for-profit universities whose sudden closures last decade left thousands of students without degrees and undermined the value of the education of those who did graduate. Those closures led President Barack Obama’s Education Department to strip ACICS’ powers in 2016,” the investigation revealed.
OSINT investigation – Digging up RNU’s digital footprint
Using the Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) tool, the Wayback Machine, GhanaFact was able to find an archived version of Reagan National University’s website, http://www.rnu.edu/ (now nonfunctional).
The Wayback Machine is an internet archiving platform that stores live copies of webpages and social media posts, making them accessible even when the original sites or posts are no longer active or have been deleted.
The Wayback Machine provided a historical record of the institution’s online presence and allowed GhanaFact to confirm that Reagan National University indeed had an online portal at some point. This further validated the Des Moines Register’s investigative claims about its operational history and subsequent disappearance from the internet.
Further research by GhanaFact on Reagan National University’s archived website using the Wayback Machine revealed an official email address for the institution. We reached out to this email requesting information about the courses offered and their admission process, but received no response. Instead, we received a bounce-back notification stating:
“Message not delivered. There was a problem delivering your message to ude.unr@snoissimda…”
This failed delivery suggests that the email account is no longer active, which further reinforces doubts about the university’s existence, especially given that its official website was already non-functional at the time of our investigation.
In an attempt to verify the claim on the university’s website that it was “authorized by the State of South Dakota to provide higher educational programs,” we also contacted the South Dakota Department of Education via email for clarification.
In response, Public Information Specialist from the South Dakota Department of Education, Nancy Van Der Weide clarified that the South Dakota Secretary of State (SDSOS) is the authority responsible for approving institutions in the state and recommended directing further inquiries to their office.
She added that Reagan National University is not currently authorized through SDSOS as a South Dakota institution. Nancy also shared a 2020 USA Today article on college accreditation and provided a link to the official SDSOS list of approved post-secondary institutions, which does not include Reagan National University.
“They are not currently authorized through SDSOS as a South Dakota institution”, she said.
To trace the history of the pictures recently posted by Hassan Ayariga on his Facebook wall, GhanaFact used Google Lens to trace the first time they appeared on the internet.
The search found the first Facebook post and images of Hassan Ayariga from his honorary doctorate graduation was posted by the Kusasis Voice Association, on September 6, 2019. This coincides with the same date that the X post was made in 2019.
The caption of the post partly read: “The Reagan National University (rnu.edu) on the 5th of September 2019 conferred Dr. Hassan Ayariga with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in Washington DC, U.S.A. The event was graced with families and friends from within Virginia and Washington. Congratulations incoming president in 2021.”
It is also worth noting that even though RNU’s details shows it was based in South Dakota, both posts about Ayariga’s alleged conferment event stated that it took place in Washington DC, which is a journey of about 2,000 km (which translates to a three-hour flight).
Hassan Ayariga’s recent interviews and his refusal to name source of his doctorate
Following the public commentary and GTEC’s directive, Hassan Ayariga has engaged in interviews across various media platforms. During these appearances, he has consistently refrained from providing detailed information about his doctorate and the university that awarded it.
In his interview on July 15, 2025, on Good Evening Ghana, with Paul Adom-Otchere, Ayariga was directly questioned about his area of study that earned him the ‘Dr’ title.
Paul Adom-Otchere: Somebody sent me a text, and I just saw five people send me the same thing. The text says, “Hey, don’t forget, GTEC says Hassan Ayariga cannot use his doctorate. Ask him. They say you can’t, you don’t have any doctorates.
Hassan Ayariga: That’s the point. You see, I woke up this morning and all I could hear was social media saying that GTEC says I cannot use my doctorate degree, and I asked how? I didn’t get any letter from GTEC. How did they come to that conclusion?
Paul Adom-Otchere: But do you have the Doctorates?
Hassan Ayariga: Of course.
Paul Adom-Otchere: From where?
Hassan Ayariga: If I tell you, then I won’t be able to sue them.
Paul Adom-Otchere: So you won’t tell me?
Hassan Ayariga: I won’t tell you.
Paul Adom-Otchere: But it’s a doctorate you studied for it, you wrote a thesis. So you have two doctorates?
Hassan Ayariga: Yes, I have 3 doctorates.
Paul Adom-Otchere: Oh you have three doctorates?
Hassan Ayariga: Yes, two are honorary, and then one from… [did not end the statement]
Paul Adom-Otchere: So the honorary you can’t use.
Hassan Ayariga: That’s what they mean. But the one that he says… they did not even ask me to submit. I didn’t even get a letter from them. Why do we behave this way? For someone like Hassan Ayariga, if you want to ask him about his doctorate, the most important thing is to issue him a formal letter and ask him to write to you. Isn’t that right?
“But now I got the news. I heard it from the news that GTEC is asking Hassan Ayariga of his doctorate, and the letter was written yesterday and the media took it this morning, and I didn’t get a copy.
Paul Adom-Otchere: So I’m allowed to call you Doctor Hassan Ayariga?
Hassan Ayariga: Of course, I am Doctor Hassan.
Paul Adom-Otchere: What’s the PhD in? Is it in engineering? Is it in science? Is it in Environmental Science? Is it in politics?
Hassan Ayariga: It’s in Political Science. From a university in Ghana? No, no, no, no. Where? I won’t tell you. There’s no need.
When probed on his PhD, he said;
“It is in Political Science. Not from a University in Ghana, but I won’t tell you. Once they have failed to follow due process, I will use the due process to correct them and sue them for defamation of character.
“Before you start telling someone not to use something publicly, you must have investigated and written to that person, wait for their response and hear from them,” he stressed.
In another interview with Starr FM on July 26, 2025, Hassan Ayariga clarified the controversy surrounding his academic qualifications, particularly on the subject of his PhD thesis. Again, he refrained from mentioning the institution from which he obtained it.
“My Masters is in Business Administration. My PhD is in Political Science. My thesis was on political violence and tolerance… I want the Ghanaian society to know that institutions like GTEC should get the full constitutional mandate before embarking on certain exercises, and they should be professional in their dealings with people,” he said.
Conclusion
The controversy surrounding Hassan Ayariga’s academic credentials highlights broader concerns about transparency, credibility, and accountability in the public sphere.
While Ayariga maintains that his PhD in Political Science is legitimate, his consistent refusal to disclose the awarding institution has only deepened public scepticism.
Investigations into Reagan National University, the institution linked to one of his honorary doctorates, reveal serious questions about its credibility and operations. The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission’s directive, combined with sustained public scrutiny, underscores the need for clearer verification processes for academic titles used by public figures.
Until verifiable documentation is provided, the legitimacy of Ayariga’s doctorate remains questionable.
