Coronavirus: Nigerian Govt regrets begging US billionaire for ventilators, deletes tweet

The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has deleted a tweet in which it pleaded with American billionaire, Elon Musk, for ventilators to treat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ministry also issued a statement apologising to Nigerians for the error.

The Special Adviser, Media and Communications to the minister, Yunusa Abdullahi, said in a statement that the tweet was not done with the permission of the minister.

The statement read, “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 is brought down.

“We have made sure our internal processes are strengthened that such doesn’t happen again. The error is highly regrettable.”

However, the President’s Personal Assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, who also appealed to Musk for assistance, refused to delete his tweet and even re-tweeted similar pleas.

Buhari’s aide tweeted, “Hello Elon, I woke up to this your tweet all over the timeline, 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!”

Musk, who is worth $31.8bn, had taken to Twitter on Thursday to state that his firm had ventilators and was willing to donate to countries that needed them.

The business tycoon, who is also 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 America.

He tweeted, “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 its response, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning tagged the billionaire on Twitter, asking him to assist Nigeria.

The ministry tweeted, “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.”