By John Ikani
Simon Harry, Nigeria’s Statistician-General of the Federation has died.
His death was confirmed to newsmen by the Director, Communication and Public Relations Department, Ichedi Joel.
He said, “Yes, it is true,it’s been confirmed that he is dead.”
An NBS staff who will not like to be mentioned confided in local media BusinessDay that Harry had been on life support in an Abuja hospital before he passed away.
Harry’s death is coming barely 48 hours after the agency debunked rumours of his demise.
Harry was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2021 to replace Yemi Kale as statistician-general of the federation to head the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Until his appointment Harry was the Director, Corporate Planning and Technical Coordination Department of NBS with almost three decades of statistical experience.
In the course of his civil service career, he has contributed to several reform initiatives including the reform of the then Federal Office of Statistics which was transformed to the current National Bureau of Statistics.
Harry’s other achievements include contributions to reforming Nigeria’s Statistical System which resulted in the creation and establishment of state bureau 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.
