Nigeria’s Statistician-General’s death confirmed
The statistician-general of Nigeria, Simon Harry, is dead.
His death was confirmed by the director, communication and public relations department of the National Bureau of Statistics, Ichedi Joel, on Wednesday, in Abuja.
Joel said, “It is not a rumor anymore, the SG is dead, he died from an illness.”
Harry’s death is coming barely 48 hours after the agency debunked rumours of his demise.
He was said to have been indisposed on Saturday and was immediately given medical attention.
Harry was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as the Statistician-General of the Federation in August last year.
He joined the 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, he has contributed to several reform initiatives including the reform of the then Federal Office of Statistics which was transformed into 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 the state bureau of statistics at the sub-national level.
The NBS came into being with the merger of the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) and the National Data Bank (NDB). The creation was part of the implementation of the Statistical Master Plan (SMP), a programme document of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN).
The merger was to give the agency a national outlook as the apex statistical agency for all the three tiers of Government.
NBS is expected to coordinate Statistical Operations of the National Statistical System in the production of Official Statistics in all the Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), State Statistical Agencies (SSAs) and Local Government Councils (LGCs)
Nigeria operates Federal System of government with 36 States and Federal Capital Territory and 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs). At the federal level, each Ministry, Department and Agency has Director of Statistics. Each state has Director of Statistics and Head of statistics Unit at Local Government Areas. All these including Statistical Institutes constitute the Nigeria National Statistical System (NSS).
The Internal Organisation of the bureau is built on Statistics Act of 2007 which is the Legal Instrument established by the Acts of Parliament.
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