Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, has defended the Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning for demanding ventilators from Tesla CEO, Elon Musk.
The US billionaire had tweeted that he has extra ventilators to donate to hospitals worldwide for immediate use.
The Ministry of finance had in a tweet asked Musk, who is the founder and Chief Engineer, SpaceX, to assist Nigeria with 100-500 ventilators to treat coronavirus victims in Nigeria.
The move by the official Twitter account of Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance, was, however, condemned by some Nigerians.
However, Omokri took to his Twitter page to defend the government, adding that there was nothing wrong in asking for help.
According to him, ventilators are the most sought after commodities on earth as countries battle coronavirus.
The former presidential spokesman wrote: “There was NOTHING wrong with what the Ministry of Finance did, by begging Elon Musk for ventilators.
” No nation was prepared for the novel CoronaVirus. Ventilators are the most sought after material commodity on Earth. They were only trying to save lives by whatever means they had.
“New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo begged for ventilators on TV! It is not a disgrace to beg to save lives!
Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has retracted its plea demanding ventilators from Elon Musk.
The Special Adviser to the Minister on Media and Communications, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, issued a disclaimer that the post made with the Ministry’s verified Twitter account was unauthorized and therefore has been brought down.
