Two Weeks After Harry Took Over As Statistician-General, Kale Still Heads Agency On NBS Website

Two weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Simon Harry as the Statistician General of the Federation on August 26, the immediate past Statistician General and the CEO of the National Bureau of Statistics, Yemi Kale, is still heading the agency on its website.

Buhari appointed Harry to head the official statistics body of the country after the expiration of the tenure of Kale.

Kale’s second term of five years ended on 16th August, 2021.

Harry, who was the Director, Corporate Planning and Technical Coordination Department of NBS with almost three decades of statistical experience, was named as Kale’s replacement.

But findings by THE WHISTLER showed that there has been no mention of the new NBS boss and SG on the NBS website.

This is like a norm in most Nigerian agencies where it takes months to update changes in role on their website and online platforms.

The late Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Ibrahim Attahiru had remained on the Army website weeks after Major General Farouk Yahaya was announced the new COAS.

The NBS has not uploaded a picture or at least made any introduction to enlighten visitors of the changes announced by Buhari since it was made.

The home page of the NBS website is user friendly with a logo of the NBS on the far left and a search bar on the far right.

Just below it is a bar that has 11 tabs containing events held as far back as 2018

The fourth page on the bar is an advertorial of a webinar programme held on September 8, 2020, when Yemi Kale was still the NBS CEO. The title was, ‘Webinar – Role Of Data In The Repositioning Of Agribusiness For Economic Growth And Development.’

The fifth page on the bar is an advertorial of a programme dated July 23, 2020, titled, ‘Leveraging Data to Drive Inclusive Policy, Revenue Generation and Improved Governance.’

The sixth page is an advert on the Bureau’s commencement of the second Quality and Integrity of Public Services Survey in Nigeria under Kale.

It also has an audio embedded which recognised the immediate past NBS boss as Statistician General.

The seventh page is the picture of the immediate past CEO of the NBS Statistician General and a writeup which addressed him as the current SGF.

“Statistician General of the Federation Dr Yemi Kale among the 16 Public Officers for the BusinessDay 2018 Public service awards,” the NBS wrote on its website.

On the website, THE WHISTLER could not find a trace of Harry as the name of the new NBS CEO and SGF.