The Federal Ministry of Finance has deleted a tweet asking U.S billionaire, Elon Musk, for ventilators to support persons infected with COVID-19 despite the billions in donations the Nigerian government has received.
The ministry had earlier made the request from the electric vehicle manufacturer and space technology entrepreneur through its verified twitter handle.
Elon Musk had tweeted his firm had extra ventilators to give out to hospitals who needed them urgently.
“We have extra FDA-approved ventilators,” Mr. Musk tweeted. “We will ship to hospitals worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. The only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients and not stored in a warehouse.”
Responding, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning tapped the billionaire for hundreds of ventilators through an indigenous car maker, Innoson had said it was ready to manufacture ventilators if it got orders from the Nigerian government.
“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,” the Ministry of Finance tweeted.
However, the action of the Nigerian government was met with mixed reactions, while some Nigerians opined that the government could tap the billionaire for the ventilators to save lives, others believe the country has enough resources to purchase ventilators and does not need to solicit help on Twitter.
Nigeria’s fight against COVID-19 recently got donations of several billions of naira from wealthy individuals and corporate bodies. Last week, the country got its share of items donated by Chinese technology billionaire, Jack Ma, to African countries. However, many fear that the monies donated to fight COVID-19 would be mismanaged by officials.
While the pandemic raged in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, the lower house of Nigeria’s Legislature resolved on February 5 to purchase 400 units of Toyota Camry 2020 model. Some people say that the legislators should have donated the money to purchase the cars to fight COVID-19. According to media reports, the legislators began getting delivery of the cars last week. The members of the House of Representatives later resolved to donate their salaries for two months to the fight against COVID-19.
Embarrassed by the reactions of many Nigerians to its tweet to Mr. Musk, the Federal Ministry of Finance deleted it and apologized, describing the tweet as an error and was not authorized and promised to improve internal processes.
Recall that in the lead up to the first confirmed case of COVID -19 in Nigeria, several government officials said the country was ready to prevent the spread of the virus. But increasing cases of infected persons forced President Buhari to declare a 14-day lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun States. The Speaker of the House of Representative, Femi Gbajabiamila said in a video tweet that “the transmission of this disease at a scale at which our systems are not prepared is our biggest present threat.”
President Buhari had said in a national broadcast that the lockdown period would be used to trace about 6000 persons who have had contact with confirmed cases and restrict spread to other states.
As of 6 pm on April 2, there are 174 confirmed cases, nine discharged and 2 deaths.
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