On 30 July 1979, Festus Marinho, the managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) on behalf of Nigeria's military leader, General Olusegun Obasanjo, dispatched a telegram to BP (Nigeria) Ltd. stating that Nigeria intended to "increase its participation to 100%" in Shell-BP and BP (Nigeria).1 He went on to say, without elaboration, that the de...