From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The new Statistician General of the Federation, Dr Simon Harry, has threatened to drop any staff who cannot cope with his speed.
Speaking when he assumed office as the new Statistician General, Harry noted that the ‘bus’ will leave any worker at the ‘bus stop who fails to adjust to his pace.
He, however, said that he would miss the relationship he had with his former boss while wishing him the best in his endeavours.
While handing over the mantle of the office to Harry, the outgoing Statistician General, Dr Yemi Kale, noted that his greatest achievement was the significant increase in how official statistics produced by the bureau has become part and parcel of government policy-making business investment decisions and even regular citizen conversations.
‘This is a major cultural shift that should not be minimised. Interestingly, despite all our statistical prowess at the bureau, it may be one area that is difficult to measure or produce a statistical report on. But maybe the new SG can take on the challenge. These are no mean feats, given the nature of challenges we have faced over the past 10 years. But they are the products of deliberate, thoughtful strategies developed to address the myriads of issues and challenges we identified at the outset guided of course by the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics and the Statistics Act, 2007,’ he said.
Recall that Kale was appointed on August 15, 2011, by President Goodluck Jonathan. After his first term of five years in 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari reappointed him for another term of five years which, of course, terminated on August 15, 2021.
However, his highly criticised data was the 5.01 per cent Gross Domestic Products (GDP) released last week.
This is against all predictions by both local experts and international organisations.
For instance, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) maintained an unchanged economic growth rate of 2.5 per cent for 2021 and 2.6 per cent for 2022 in Nigeria while some experts forecast lower growth rates citing insecurity, inflation and other economic indices as their reasons.