*Tinubu congratulates him
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has been named as the winner of the 2025 Founders Sunhak Peace Award.
Mr Ikechukwu Eze, Special Adviser to Jonathan disclosed this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.
Eze said that the award would be presented to the former president by Sunhak Peace Prize Foundation in Seoul, South Korea on April 11.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has congratulated former President Jonathan for winning the 2025 Sunhak Peace Founders’ Award.
The President Tinubu applauded the former President for his consistent advocacy for peace, harmony, and communality, a patriotic endeavour that has earned him global recognition.
The President stated that Dr Jonathan’s winning the Sunhak Peace Award affirms his bold efforts in peacebuilding and promoting democracy in Africa and beyond.
According to Eze, Jonathan becomes the third person and the first African leader to win this category of the award, after former United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon and Prime Minister of Cambodia, Mr Hun Sen.
Eze said that this yearâs award ceremony, the sixth in the series, would take place in Seoul on April 11, where Jonathan and other laureates would be decorated.
He quoted the Sunhak Peace Prize Committee as stating that the honour was in recognition of Jonathanâs consistent mediations and pro-democracy activities to bring peace to the African continent.
This, according to him, is especially through the instrumentality of the various associations he chairs, including Goodluck Jonathan Foundation (GJF), West African Eldersâ Forum (WAEF) and International Summit Council for Peace (ISCP).
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Founders Sunhak Peace Award and the Sunhak Peace Prize are two categories of awards presented biennially by the committee to individuals and organisations acknowledged as worthy contributors to world peace and human development.
Prominent past winners of the second category, which is the Sunhak Peace Prize, included former Senegalese President Macky Sall and President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina.
Others were Dame Sarah Gilbert, Co-developer of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine as well as GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
Eze said that Jonathan would be receiving his award alongside three individuals who were recently announced by José Barroso, the Sunhak Peace Prize Committee Chair and former President of the European Commission, as winners in the other category.
They include Patrick Awuah Jr., Founder and President of Ashesi University in Ghana, Hugh Evans, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Global Citizen and Wanjira Mathai, Regional Director for Africa at the World Resources Institute.
Eze also quoted the founder of the prize, Dr Hak Ja Han Moon, as stating in her pre-event address that the lives of the laureates had been an inspiring testament to how peace could be realised through concrete actions and cultural transformation.
âOver the past decade, the Sunhak Peace Prize has identified and honoured individuals. 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,ââ Moon said.
Established in 2015, the biennial Sunhak Peace Prize honours individuals and organisations that have shown extraordinary services to global peace and well-being in any of the three areas.
The areas are sustainable human development, conflict resolution or ecological conservation.
President Tinubu in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga recalled the former Presidentâs historic acceptance of the results of the 2015 presidential election and his peaceful handover of power to an opposition party, which bolstered the nationâs democratic profile.
President Tinubu celebrated the landmark achievement with former President Jonathan and thanks the Sunhak Peace Prize Committee for recognising the efforts of those working hard to improve the world.
