The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has deleted a tweet in which it begged the US billionaire, Elon Musk, for ventilators to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ministry also released a Press statement where it asked Nigerians for forgiveness for the mistake.
Yunusa Abdullahi, the Special Adviser on Media and Communications, said in the statement that the tweet was posted without the Minister’s consent.
In the press statement, the Minister said an unauthorised post was made on the verified Twitter handle of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning. The facts 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”.
Nonetheless, Bashir Ahmad, the president’s Personal Assistant on New Media, who also appealed to Musk for help, declined to remove his tweet and even retweeted identical appeals.
The President’s aide had earlier twitted, “Hello Elon, I woke up to this your tweet all over the timeline, 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!”
It would be recalled that Musk, worth $31.8 billion, took to Twitter on Thursday to say his company had ventilators and was willing to donate to countries that needed them.
The business tycoon, who is also SpaceX’s founder and chief engineer, explained that his company had extra ventilators authorised by the American Food and Drug Administration.
In the tweet, the American billionaire had said, “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, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning tagged the billionaire on Twitter, asking him to support Nigeria.
The ministry 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”.
