Nigeria’s Statistician-General Simon Harry dies 8 months after appointment

The Statistician-General of the Federation, Simon Harry, is dead, Director, Communication and Public Relations Department, Ichedi Joel, confirmed on Wednesday.

He was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as Statistician-General in August 2021 to succeed Yemi Kale.

The agency had earlier debunked reports that Harry had died, branding it as a rumour.

But Joel said it was no longer a rumour and that Harry has died.

“It is not a rumor anymore, the SG is dead, he died from an illness,” he said, but he did not disclose the nature of the illness.

The deceased joined the Federal Office of Statistics as Statistician 11 in 1992 and rose to the position of a substantive Director of Statistics in 2019.

With nearly three decades of statistical experience, Dr. Harry was the Director, Corporate Planning and Technical Coordination Department at NBS.

Harry has contributed to several reform initiatives during his civil service career, including the reform of the then Federal Office of Statistics, which evolved into the current National Bureau of Statistics, and the reform of the Nigerian Statistical System, which resulted in the creation and establishment of State Bureaus of Statistics at the subnational level.