The Nigerian Government, through the Federal Ministry of Finance, has taken to micro-blogging platform, Twitter, to beg for ventilators to be used on confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the country.
Members of Nigeria’s House of Representatives recently took delivery of 400 newly acquired Toyota Camry 2020 model, a spending citizens say could have been channelled to funding Nigeria’s deficient health sector.
Musk, who is the founder and Chief Engineer, SpaceX, had tweeted on Thursday that his firm had extra ventilators that had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.
He said, “We have extra FDA-approved ventilators. We will ship to hospitals worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. Only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients and not stored in a warehouse.”
In response, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning asked the billionaire to give the extra ventilators to Nigeria.
The tweet reads, “Dear @Elonmusk @Tesla, Federal Government of Nigeria needs support with 100 to 500 ventilators to assist with Covid-19 cases rising every day in Nigeria.”
Recall that Nigeria recently received medical items from Chinese billionaire, Jack Ma, to help combat the virus in the country.
However, on Thursday, the Nigerian government has deleted the tweet.
The tweet generated a lot of criticisms as the ministry begged the South African billionaire for “between 100 and 500 ventilators” to assist in the growing number of coronavirus cases in the country.
As of Wednesday, Nigeria’s coronavirus cases had shot up to 174, with two deaths.
The backlash from Nigerians apparently forced the ministry to delete the tweet and issue a statement saying it was “an unauthorised post.”
“An unauthorised post was made on the verified twitter handle of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning. The fact of the post is regrettable because of which it was brought down. We have made sure our internal processes are strengthened that such doesn’t happen again. The error is highly regrettable,” a statement by Yunusa Abdullahi, the media aide to the minister of finance, read.
Although the ministry described the post as regrettable, supporters of the government defended the tweet saying other countries such as Ukraine also asked for help.
Bashir Ahmad, President Muhammadu Buhari’s assistant on New Media, amplified the ministry’s appeal through his social media handle.
“Hello Elon, I woke up to this your tweet all over the TL, in this period of worldwide emergency getting ventilators is pretty hard no matter how much money you get, and that’s understandable! Nigeria, my dear country is in need. Kindly send 100s here, we really need them, thanks,” Mr Ahmad wrote in response to Mr Musk’s tweet.
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