(Abuja, October 9, 2013)  The President of Liberia, Her Excellency Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is the 2013 “Peace and Environment Africa Award” recipient of the Center for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ) of Delta State, Nigeria.

The award is in recognition of her excellent leadership in maintaining stability and sustainable peace in Liberia.

Presenting the award on behalf of the Board of Trustees of CEPEJ, the Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, noted that President Sirleaf was selected by an Award Panel of distinguished and respected personalities.

Mr. Mulade disclosed that the Panel chose the Liberian leader for her unrelenting role in actualizing well-planned policies and programs that have brought the post-war crisis in Liberia under permanent control.

The CEPEJ executive also observed that Liberia is today a peaceful nation, luring most Africans and other nationals who ran away from it during the war years.

He presented the honor in Abuja on Tuesday to Liberia’s Ambassador to Nigeria, His Excellency Dr. Al-Hassan Conteh, for onward delivery to the President of Liberia. 

Receiving the prize, which is a crystal glass plaque embossed with salutary commendation to President Sirleaf, Ambassador Conteh thanked the CEPEJ for the singular decoration, which he would send to the Liberian leader.

He described the distinction as an admiration of the President’s leadership, as well as recognition of all Liberians who are now free from the fear of war.  It was   a very good symbol of the superb state of Liberia-Nigeria relations, he emphasized.  He said it was also a fitting credit of the President’s recent work on sustainable development and other growth issues, when she served as Co-chair of the United Nations High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

The Center’s 2013 prominent African and institutional awardees for the impact of their work on issues of peace and environment  include former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, who received the ‘Peace and Environment Award for Pan African Movement against Colonialism’.

Established in 2001 in the Delta State of Nigeria, the mission of the Center for Peace and Environmental Justice State is to secure sustainable peace and environmental best practices through the instrumentality of advocacy for justice.