There was drama online, as the verified Twitter handle of the ministry of finance, budget and national planning asked Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, for free ventilators publicly.
The ministry made the plea in response to Musk’s tweet announcing that his company had free ventilators for hospitals within Tesla delivery regions.
“We have extra FDA-approved ventilators. Will ship to hospitals worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. Device & shipping cost are free. Only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients, not stored in a warehouse. Please me or @Tesla know,” he tweeted.
Responding to the tweet, the finance ministry wrote: “Dear @elonmusk @Tesla Federal Government of Nigeria needs support with 100-500 ventilators to assist with #Covid19 cases arising every day in Nigeria”.
The tweet is causing a ruckus amongst Nigerian Twitter users. See some of the responses below:
It would have been less shameful if u allow Teaching Hospitals to do this kind of bambiala. If it is to release money for official cars for politician , we wont hear anything here.
— Ayotunde (@Fatod09) April 2, 2020
Some Nigerians are so foolish it’s embarrassing. Many governments all over the world are soliciting for help and u are shaming ur country for doing same? The ventilators are to save ur useless lives and not for any other purpose. The children of perdition should beat a halt now
— Mazi Chinedu (@tony_divine81) April 2, 2020
Dear Elon Musk, each minister, governor, senator and house of rep. Member earn monthly enough money to buy 3 ventilators. To donate to this same govt that has been reaping off its masses would make you an accomplice of their corruption. Ignore their shameless plea sir. Thank you.
— Adeoye Abolaji (@AbolajiAdeoye) April 2, 2020
Representatives of other countries have also responded to the tweet making cases for their countries.
The Ukrainian embassy in the US and a Spanish congressman are among public figures who responded to the tweet.
Ventilator machines or respirators typically take over one’s breathing process when diseases (like COVID-19) cause the lungs to fail and fall short in breathing function required to keep a patient alive as the immune system tries to fight off the infection.
