When Michael Moore, the former attorney-general of Mississippi, said in 1994 that the state was suing big tobacco companies, he said: “This lawsuit is premised on a simple notion: you caused the health crisis, you pay for it.” For the past 40 years, the tobacco industry had successfully defended every lawsuit brought by sick smokers. One internal memo by RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company said: “The way we won these cases . . . is not by spending all of Reynolds’ money but by making the other son of a bitch spend all of his.”

Mr Moore hired his best friend, Dick Scruggs, who made his name suing asbestos companies, and they persuaded other states to file similar actions. He became the lead negotiator for the states when the tobacco companies agreed to a $368.5 billion settlement in June 1997. However, Congress did not approve it and another round of negotiations began, eventually leading to the Master Settlement Agreement in November 1998.

This required the tobacco companies to restrict their marketing and to pay billions of dollars to the states in perpetuity. It was estimated that the payments would total $256 billion in the first 25 years.

Mr Moore has described the US tobacco industry in the past as “the most corrupt and evil corporate animal that has ever been created in this country”.

He told The Times that he decided to get involved in Nigeria because he was “on a mission . . . The tobacco companies are doing exactly the same things they were doing in America – marketing to kids and trying to get them hooked.”

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