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The Federal Government had expressed regret over its action of begging for ventilators online, and has apologised to Nigerians over the act, saying it was done without due authorisation.
The Federal Government yesterday (Thursday) on social media pleaded with United States billionaire, Elon Musk, for ventilators to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government, however, deleted the tweet soon after and apologised to Nigerians.
Musk, who is 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 Covid19 cases rising every day in Nigeria.”
On Twitter, however, many Nigerians questioned the propriety of the Federal Government appealing openly on social media for ventilators.
The ministry, however, deleted a tweet in which it pleaded with Musk for ventilators to treat the Covid-19 pandemic, and 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.
“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.”
