Nigerians lampoon minister who begged US billionaire for free ventilators, as beggarly tweet hurriedly pulled down

The Federal Government has withdrawn the plea made by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, where she demanded ventilators from a United States’ billionaire, Elon Musk, in order to provide treatment for the Coronavirus patients within Nigeria.

Musk, 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.

“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,” Musk had tweeted.

In an early response, the ministry of finance, budget and national planning had shown willingness to receive the kind gesture, opening up on the need of 100 to 500.

The ministry had 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.”

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Following an immediate backlash from the Ni

The minister plea for the machines were greeted with harsh criticisms from the Nigerian populace.

The minister’s Special Adviser to the minister on Media and Communications, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, issued a disclaimer that the unauthorised post made with the ministry’s verified Twitter handle was regrettable. The tweet was thereby deleted.

Tanko Abdullahi then wrote, “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.”