Recently, a report emerged that Nigeria’s immediate past Statistician-General, Yemi Kale said that President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, pressurised him to publish inaccurate economic data.
Gatekeepers News reports that Kale’s second term tenure of five years expired on August 16, 2021, and was replaced by Simon B. Harry.
The report of ‘falsifying’ data arose following the interview he had on The Morning Show on Arise TV.
The report which was been published by a section of the media (Gatekeepers News not included) had claimed that Kale said he didn’t bend to pressures by the present administration to publish inaccurate economic data.
Checks by Gatekeepers News found that Kale was misinterpreted for his response on the way he handled criticism from political bigots when data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) were unfavourable.
Below is Kale’s response which was misinterpreted:
“I’m extremely stubborn which a few of my friends have said is a good requirement for the job. But on a serious note, when I started this job, I remember mentioning to my key staff that if I am going to do this job right, I must be ready to be fired at a moment’s notice.
“If you go to my previous office, I never really settled down properly because I expected that anytime, I could be removed. And that was the price I was prepared to pay for trying to do the job properly.
“I had to convince myself that it is just a job. I’m serving my country and I will serve it correctly and I’m ready to lose my job for doing the right things. I am not ready to keep my job for doing the wrong things.
“Once I convinced myself that that’s the way it was going to go, I didn’t particularly care about any political attacks or any opinions.
“All I did was to ensure that we followed the correct methodology. Before the report came out, I was very hands-on because I knew that if anyone found any mistakes, they can use that against me. I would check every single thing to ensure that things are done properly. Once I’m very confident about it, it goes out.
“In terms of political interference, I don’t think it is new to Nigeria. I remember even in the US, the former President Trump would always agree with the good data, and say the ones he didn’t like, he didn’t believe they were correct.
“So I wasn’t fazed by different comments made by different people that did not agree. We are supposed to publish data that is correct and accurate in line with what comes out on the field and that’s exactly what we focused on.”
Gatekeepers News confirms that the former Statistician-General at no time during the interview said he was pressured to falsify economic data as being narrated.
