The Federal Government of Nigeria has resorted to begging for ventilators on a micro-blogging platform —Twitter, as the number of confirmed cases of the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) increases to 174 and two deaths in the country.
The Government, through the Federal Ministry of Finance, took to Twitter, to beg US billionaire, Elon Musk for Ventilators.
Musk, the founder and Chief Engineer, SpaceX, tweeted on Thursday, April 2, 2020 on his Twitter handle @Elonmusk, that his firm had extra ventilators that had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.
The tweet read; “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 response to this, the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning @FinMinNigeria headed by Zainab Ahmed, responded to Musk, begging the billionaire to give the extra ventilators to Nigeria.
The tweet reads, “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.”
Also, the Personal Assistant on New Media to President Muhammadu Buhari, Bashir Ahmad on Twitter @BashirAhmaad urged Musk to send ventilators in their 100s to Nigeria.
He tweeted, “Hello Elon, I woke up to this your tweet all over the TL, 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!”
This is happening in a country where the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday revealed that Monetary contributions to the account set up at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the auspices of the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) have hit N15 Billion.
A statement issued on behalf of the coalition by the Director, Corporate Communications, Central Bank of Nigeria, Isaac Okorafor, on Wednesday, April 1, 2020, listed 37 donors, including individuals, banks and other corporates.
Recall that Nigeria recently received medical items from Chinese billionaire, Jack Ma, to help fight the virus in the country.
Meanwhile, The Sight News recalls that members of Nigeria’s House of Representatives recently took delivery of 400 newly acquired Toyota Camry 2020 models which many Nigerians have said, could have been channelled to funding the country’s dilapidated healthcare system.
