Former President Goodluck Jonathan has won the 2025 Sunhak Peace Award.
Jonathan’s spokesperson, Ikechukwu Eze, announced this on Monday, saying the award would be presented be presented by the Sunhak Peace Prize Foundation in Seoul, South Korea.
He said his principal was the third recipient and the first African leader to win this category of the Sunhak Award, after former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
This year’s award ceremony, the sixth in the series, will hold in Seoul on Friday, 11 April 2025, where Dr. Jonathan and other laureates will be honoured.
The Sunhak Peace Prize Committee said the former president won the prize for his consistent mediation and pro-democracy initiatives aimed at fostering peace across Africa, adding that his work is particularly evident through the organisations he leads, including the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, GJF; the West African Elders Forum, WAEF, and the International Summit Council for Peace, ISCP.
The Founder’s Sunhak Peace Award and the Sunhak Peace Prize are two categories of awards presented biennially by the committee to individuals and organisations acknowledged for their contributions to world peace and human development.
Past winners of the second category, the Sunhak Peace Prize, include former Senegalese President Macky Sall; the President of the African Development Bank, AfDB, Akinwumi Adesina; Dame Sarah Catherine Gilbert, co-developer of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine; and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
Jonathan will receive his award alongside three individuals recently announced by José Manuel Durão Barroso, Chair of the Sunhak Peace Prize Committee and former President of the European Commission, as winners in the other category.
The other awardees include Patrick Awuah Jr., Founder and President of Ashesi University in Ghana; Hugh Evans, co-founder and CEO of Global Citizen; and Wanjira Mathai, Regional Director for Africa at the World Resources Institute.
The founder of the Sunhak Peace Prize, Hak Ja Han Moon, leads an interreligious and international movement for peace. He said in her pre-event address that the lives of the laureates show how peace can be achieved through concrete actions and cultural transformation.
“Over the past decade, the Sunhak Peace Prize has identified and honoured individuals who have dedicated themselves to addressing urgent global challenges based on its three core values: respect for human rights, reconciliation of conflicts, and ecological conservation,” she said.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has congratulated former President Goodluck Jonathan for winning the 2025 Sunhak Peace Founders’ Award.
Tinubu applauded the former President for his consistent advocacy for peace, harmony, and communality, a patriotic endeavour that has earned him global recognition, Mr Bayo Onanuga, his spokesman, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The President stated that Jonathan’s winning the Sunhak Peace Award affirmed his bold efforts in peacebuilding and promoting democracy in Africa and beyond.
