Simon Harry: 100 Days Of The New Sheriff At NBS, by Damilola Olufemi

Since the inception of Dr. Simon B Harry as the Statistician-General of the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, there have been new phases of development and advancement in the day-to-day activities of the organisation.

No doubt, the leadership skill and team spirit embedded in him as a person has sharpened the look of the organisation, within the last 100 days.

Dr. Simon B Harry assumed office on the 30th of August, 2021 and today, December 8th, 2021, makes it 100 days of assuming the position of the Statistician General at NBS.

Within this period of time, his activeness can be seen and felt through various ways he has impacted the organisation.

A popular maxim posits that “punctuality is the sole of business”. This was the first step of Dr. Simon B. Harry of setting news standards in office administration and management. Unlike what the management used to be, the act of lateness has now become a thing of the past as all staff now embrace punctuality as a culture. The era of absenteeism as the Statistician-General takes the lead.

With the act of being punctual, more time is spent to achieve more and productive days, weeks, months have been recorded.

His leadership driven skill and transformation program has derived the organisation a lot of benefits for staffs and the entire management.

Some of the transformation experienced within the last 100 days include:

(a) Restructuring of the NBS’ departments and reorientation of all staff for improved operational efficiency;

(b) Physical upgrade of the NBS Headquarters and complete overhauling of the water, air-conditioning, electrical and furnishing systems; and

(c) Rebranding the NBS through standardized signposts and other insignia of identity that have today made the agency one of the highly rated federal MDAs.

With the experience and combination of both administrative managerial skills, he has been able to awaken the bond between the supervising ministry of the NBS and the National Assembly.

This relationship can be seen in the recent official visits and commendations of the Minister of Finance, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed; Minister of State for Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba; the Chairman of Senate Committee on Planning and his House of Reps’ counterpart for various functions in the NBS.

He also ensured transparency and accountability is established in the organisation and regular information is passed to the public about what the organisation is doing by relating with the media and keeping constant interactions with the press on reports of various surveys/activities of the agency for accurate reportage of the figures and other factual information to the publics.

In his effort to bring about positive change, Dr. Simon B. Harry took a step further by redefining the agency’s relationship with donor partners and ensure that they are invited for briefings on their funded projects from time to time and does not in any way relegates the relevance of the media as he also invite them to briefings on state of the various projects.

Dr. Simon’s administration deserves commendation, no doubt. He is committed and determined to the growth of NBS. He has hosted over 15 stakeholder groups/professional bodies in the past three months as part of his efforts to enlist their support in the renewed drive to make Nigeria’s statistical system globally competitive in terms of quality and timeliness of reports, technological resources and improved skills of staff across all cadres.

All these can only be achieved within the space of 100 days by an individual who is not only an administrator per excellence, but a team player who has the charisma to lead and direct his subordinates.

The rise of a new transformation has set in and the expectation to perform more in subsequent days in his administration is looked towards to by both the management and staff of the agency.

Dr. Simon B. Harry, a personality to behold!