Nigeria’s Philip Obaji is a nominee for the Stuttgart Peace Prize, an award previously won by former CIA employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The 37-year-old Daily Beast correspondent, who nabbed his first Stuttgart Peace Prize nomination, also earned a special distinction as the only African in a list of 16 individuals and organizations to be nominated for the 2023 edition of the prestigious award.
Obaji said following the Stuttgart Peace Prize nomination news: “This is not an award Africans are used to being nominated or even winning and so to be considered for it is a huge honor.”
Only one African – Kenyan lawyer Fatuma Abdulkadir Adan – has ever won the prestigious award since its inception in 2003.
The Stuttgart Peace Prize is an annual award of 5,000 Euros made by the German non governmental organization Die AnStifter to people or projects involved “in a special way for peace, justice and world solidarity”. The prize will be awarded to a winner at a peace gala in Stuttgart, Germany, on December 10.
Full list of nominees for the Stuttgart Peace Prize
1. Amaro Foro eV, Germany-based transcultural youth association
2. Natalie Amiri, German-Iranian journalist
3. German Doctors, German global medical outreach
4. Kickers Fan project, German football initiative
5. Samuel J. Fleiner, German conceptual artist and composer
6. Parastou Forouhar, Iranian artist and author
7. Shahin Gavanji and Jahangir Gavanji, Iranian human rights activists and researchers
8. Initiative against the death penalty e. V, based in Taunusstein, Germany
9. Philip Obaji Jr., Nigerian journalist and human rights campaigner
10. Ali R., human rights campaigner in Europe
11. Die Seebrücke, Germany-based civil society movement
12. Start with a Friend e.V., German non profit social association
13. Stelp eV, civil aid organization based in Stuttgart, Germany
14. Harald Thomé, German social justice campaigner
15. Thomas and Ulrike Vogt, German peace activists
16. Wahat al-Salam /Neve Shalom, Israeli cooperative village
