The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), condoled with family, friends and associates of Dr Simon Harry, the Statistician-General of the Federation, who passed away Wednesday.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Wednesday, Buhari commiserated with the government and people of Plateau State on the loss of “an illustrious citizen”.
The President admired his exemplary contributions to the evolution of the National Bureau of Statistics and the developmental planning of the country.
Buhari’s tribute eulogised the late scholar’s meritorious service to the country, having ”worked conscientiously with previous heads of the organisation in recent years, providing relevant data to government and making the NBS a point of reference on various issues affecting the country”.
The President affirmed that ”with his appointment in August 2021, Dr Harry ensured that the organisation where he had put in three decades continued to be relevant in taking crucial decisions in the country, urging colleagues in the field of data gathering and analysis, especially at the NBS, to take solace in the fact that, having risen to the pinnacle of his career, Harry put in his best in the service of the country”.
He prayed that God would repose his soul and comfort the family in this time of grief.
With nearly three decades of statistical experience, Dr Simon Harry was the Director of the Corporate Planning and Technical Coordination Department at the NBS.
He began his national career as a statistician 11 at the former Federal Office of Statistics in 1992 and prominently rose through the ranks to become a full-fledged statistician in 2019, contributing immensely to a range of reforms during his civil service career, including the reform of the then Federal Office of Statistics, which morphed into the current National Bureau of Statistics, as well as the reform of the Nigerian statistical system, resulting in the creation and establishment of State Bureaus of Statistics at the sub-national level.
Late Simon Harry had succeeded the Statistician-General, Dr Yemi Kale, whose second tenure of five years expired on August 16, 2021.
He is survived by his wife and children.
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