Former President Jonathan named first African to win Sunhak Peace award

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has been announced as the winner of the 2025 Founder’s Sunhak Peace Award, which will be presented by the Sunhak Peace Prize Foundation in Seoul, South Korea.

A statement by his Media Adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, announced that the ex-Nigerian leader becomes the third recipient and the first African leader to win this category of the Sunhak Award, following former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The 2025 award ceremony, the sixth in the series, will take place in Seoul on Friday, 11 April 2025, where Dr Jonathan and other laureates will be honoured.

According to the Sunhak Peace Prize Committee, Jonathan is being recognised with the Founder’s Prize for his consistent mediation efforts and pro-democracy initiatives aimed at fostering peace across Africa. 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 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, who leads an interreligious and international movement for peace, stated in her pre-event address that the lives of the laureates serve as an inspiring testament to 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.

The biennial Sunhak Peace Prize, established in 2015, recognises individuals and organisations that have demonstrated extraordinary service to global peace and wellbeing in one of three areas: sustainable human development, conflict resolution, or ecological conservation.