Nigeria’s Statistician-General Simon Harry Dies After Brief Illness

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Statistician-General of the Federation and head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Mr Simon Harry, has died, according to a report by Punch.

He was said to have died after suffering from an undisclosed illness. Mr Harry was reportedly indisposed on Saturday and was immediately given medical attention but he could not survive it.

It was stated that the demise of the nation’s stats officer was confirmed by the Director, Communication and Public Relations Department of the NBS, Ichedi Joel, on Wednesday, in Abuja, who was quoted as saying, “It is not a rumour anymore, the SG is dead, he died from an illness.”

Mr Harry 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 August 2021, he was appointed as the Statistician-General by President Muhammadu Buhari to succeed the former occupier of the seat, Mr Yemi Kale.

Over the weekend, it was reported that Mr Harry had died, but the stats office barely 48 hours ago debunked the reports.

“The bureau wishes to state that there is no iota of truth in what was published by an online medium and considers the publication as the height of irresponsible journalism and a figment of the imagination of the publisher.

“The fact of the matter is that the Statistician-General was slightly indisposed on Saturday and following medication is now recuperating.

“We are well certain that he would, in a matter of a few days, be back to his desk and continue his work in repositioning the NBS as the foremost national statistics agency in Africa and among the best globally,” the statement issued by Mr Joel on Sunday had said.