COVID-19: We regret begging US billionaire for ventilators- FG

The Federal Government has withdrawn the plea made by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning demanding ventilators from a United States’ billionaire, Elon Musk in order to provide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

Musk, the co-founder and CEO of Tesla tweeted on Thursday: "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. Please me or @Tesla know."

The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning responded to the tweet, writing: "Dear @elonmusk @Tesla Federal Government of Nigeria needs support with 100-500 ventilators to assist with #Covid19 cases arising every day in Nigeria.". (Read Here)

Following an immediate backlash from the public, however, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, the Special Adviser to the minister on Media and Communications, issued a disclaimer that the unauthorised post made with the ministry’s verified Twitter handle is regrettable and therefore brought down. 

He 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.”