FRESH facts have emerged as to why Irene Chigbue, immediate past director general of Nigeria's Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) lost her bid to get another four-year term in office. BusinessWorld Intelligence can now disclose the Chigbue lost her plum job at the privatization agency as a result of her partisan disposition to the raging battle for the ownership of the Nigeria Cement Company (NigerCem) Nkalagu, Ebonyi State.
The federal government recently announced the appointment of Dr Christopher Uloneme Anyanwu, a university don from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, as the new chief executive officer of BPE. The announcement put paid to moves by the former BPE boss to get another four-year term of office.
Competent presidency sources said the manner in which Chigbue dabbled into the ownership tussle was the final straw that thwarted her bid for tenure renewal by the presidency. The source said Chigbue had taken sides with one of the parties to the conflict without hearing out the other party.