Covid-19: Finance ministry takes down unauthorised tweet begging for ventilators

The ministry of finance, budget and national planning has deleted a tweet in which it asked Tesle CEO and billionaire Elon Musk to donate hundreds of ventilators free to Nigeria. The deletion came amidst embarrassment and accusation that the ministry was not being professional. Musk had tweeted, “We have extra FDA-approved ventilators. Will ship to […]

The ministry of finance, budget and national planning has deleted a tweet in which it asked Tesle CEO and billionaire Elon Musk to donate hundreds of ventilators free to Nigeria.

The deletion came amidst embarrassment and accusation that the ministry was not being professional.

Musk had tweeted, “We have extra FDA-approved ventilators. Will ship to hospitals worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. Device & shipping cost are free. Only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients, not stored in a warehouse. Please me or @Tesla know>”

In response, the finance ministry said, “Dear @elonmusk @Tesla Federal Government of Nigeria needs support with 100-500 ventilators to assist with #Covid19 cases arising every day in Nigeria”.

The tweet has since been deleted on Thursday and condemned by the ministry as regrettable and unauthorised.

“An unauthorised post was made on the verified Twitter handle of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning,” said Yunusa Abdullahi, special adviser on media and communications to finance minister Zainab Ahmed.

“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.”

But Bashir Ahmad, President Muhammadu Buhari’s personal assistant on new media, made the same plea, asking for ventilators.

“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!” he tweeted.

By Thursday, Nigeria has recorded 184 confirmed cases of Covid-19—and 20 patients have been discharged from hospital after treatment.