Simon Harry, Nigeria’s Statistician General of the Federation, is dead after reportedly being indisposed late last week.
Rumors of his death shook Abuja Wednesday morning, though details were still sketchy as at press time.
“Yes, it is true, it’s been confirmed that he is dead,” the Director, Communication and Public Relations Department, Ichedi Joel, confirmed to The Whistler.
On August 26, 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Simon B. Harry as the new Statistician-General of the Federation to head the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Harry succeeded Yemi Kale, whose second term tenure of five years expired on August 16, 2021.
Until his appointment Harry was the Director, Corporate Planning and Technical Coordination Department of NBS with almost three decades of statistical experience.
He joined the erstwhile Federal Office of Statistics as Statistician 11 in 1992 and rose to the position of a substantive Director of Statistics in 2019.
In the course of his civil service career, Harry has contributed to several reform initiatives including the reform of the then Federal Office of Statistics which transformed to the current National Bureau of Statistics, the reform of the Nigerian Statistical System which resulted to the creation and establishment of State Bureaus of Statistics at the sub-national level.
During his very short stay in office, Harry built on the successes of his predecessor, Yemi Kale and carried out some remarkable transformation.
