How Edwin Clark Helped My Government—Gowon

<h4>How Edwin Clark Helped My Government<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that 89 years Yakubu Gowon&comma; Nigeria’s 3rd military head of State and civil war hero has&comma; for the first time&comma; revealed what he achieved with Edwin Clark who was the spokesperson of his government&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Gowon who joined the Nigerian Army in 1954 and received his commission as a Second Lieutenant on 19 October 1955 spoke on Thursday at the public presentation of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Brutally Frank&comma;” an autobiography of elder statesman&comma; Chief Edwin Clark&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Major-General Yakubu Gowon &lpar;retd&rpar;&comma; under whose administration Chief Clark served as the federal commissioner for information and foreign affairs&comma; said he never had any form of argument with with Chief Edwin Clark&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Gowon said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I can assure you I’ve never had any difficulty or argument with him&period; It was most amicable and respectfully given&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; considering a strong personality&comma; there were of course times that he would vehemently disagree with his colleagues&comma; commissioners and military officers and worked hard to convince them of why his own position is better than theirs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;22035" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-22035" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-22035" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;08&sol;Clark-obasanjo-300x150&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"How Edwin Clark Helped My Government---Gowon" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"150" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-22035" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Clark and Obasanjo&comma; another civil war hero<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;He was helpful not only in explaining government policies and programmes in the efforts to rebuild our unity in the country&period; I also find him useful in our vision of building a common identity within the West African subregion&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The former Head of State noted that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Brutally Frank” is a good chronicle of the events that happened under his administration&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Gowon added&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I&comma; therefore&comma; found his personality and partnership skills assets in visiting various West African countries to canvass the need for us to have a common regional body which today is known as ECOWAS&period; Of course&comma; our Ministry of Foreign Affairs certainly did a very good job along with his efforts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;thenationonlineng&period;net&sol;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;So this book&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote;Brutally Frank&comma;’ therefore&comma; is a very useful chronicle of what transpired in Nigeria during his lifetime of service&period; I am hopeful that the younger generations would be better informed on the experiences&comma; which has brought the country to what it is today&comma;”<&sol;a> he stated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Born on October 19&comma; 1934&comma; Gowon presided over a controversial Nigerian Civil War and delivered the famous &&num;8220&semi;no victor&comma; no vanquished&&num;8221&semi; speech at the war&&num;8217&semi;s end to promote healing and reconciliation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Nigerian Civil War is listed as one of the deadliest in modern history&comma; with some accusing Gowon of crimes against humanity and genocide&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Gowon maintains that he committed no wrongdoing during the war and that his leadership saved the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>An Anglican Christian from a minority Ngas family of Northern Nigeria&comma; Gowon is a Nigerian nationalist&comma; and a believer in the unity and oneness of Nigeria&period; Gowon&&num;8217&semi;s rise to power followed the July 1966 counter-coup and cemented military rule in Nigeria&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Consequently&comma; Gowon served for the longest continuous period as head of state of Nigeria&comma; ruling for almost nine years until his overthrow in the coup d&&num;8217&semi;état of 1975 by Brigadier Murtala Mohammed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;22034" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-22034" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-22034" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;08&sol;EDWIN-CLARK1-300x210&period;jpg" alt&equals;"How Edwin Clark Helped My Government---Gowon" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"210" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-22034" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Edwin Clark&comma; helped Yakubu Gowon to manage effective government communications<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;