The Nigerian Presidency on Thursday appealed to United States billionaire, Elon Musk, for ventilators to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.”
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2020
Bashir Ahmad, the Personal Assistant to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari tweeted at the American billionaire asking him to assist 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!”
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! https://t.co/aYhiNYTUjX
— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) April 2, 2020
Despite the billions of naira recently donated by Nigerian business moguls to help cobat COVID-19, Nigeria still has only about 500 ventilators nationwide, most of which are already in use, according to the Nigerian Medical Association. The Federal Ministry of Health has however denied the report.
The development has sparked mixed reactions on Nigerian Twitter.
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