Why Nigerians are angry with Finance Ministry for asking Elon Musk to donate ventilators

A tweet from the official Twitter handle of Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance and Budget and National Planning has thrown the country’s Twitter community into a frenzy.

The Ministry’s tweet was a response to a post by Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, announcing that his company will be donating ventilators to hospitals across the world to support the fight against COVID-19.

“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,” Musk, CEO of the electric vehicle manufacturing company tweeted.

Nigeria’s Finance Ministry, through its verified Twitter handle, replied the tweet and asked Musk to also donate to Nigeria.

“Dear @elonmusk @Tesla Federal Government of Nigeria needs support with 100-500 ventilators to assist with #Covid19 cases arising every day in Nigeria,” the ministry tweeted.

A ventilator is a machine that helps people who cannot breathe properly on their own by pumping air in and out of their lungs through a tube inserted into their windpipe.

Shortness of breath or acute respiratory distress syndrome is one of the symptoms of the deadly virus and this is why ventilators are in high demand by hospitals to manage COVID-19 patients who may present breathing problems.

Other typical signs and symptoms of the virus include: fever (87.9%), dry cough (67.7%), fatigue (38.1%), sputum production (33.4%), shortness of breath (18.6%), sore throat (13.9%), headache (13.6%), myalgia or arthralgia (14.8%), chills (11.4%), nausea or vomiting (5.0%), nasal congestion (4.8%), diarrhea (3.7%), and hemoptysis (0.9%), and conjunctival congestion (0.8%).

Reports of inadequate ventilators in Nigerian hospitals have been a subject of debate in the country in the past few weeks. A report by The Punch on Tuesday March 24, 2020 says Nigeria has less than 500 ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients. This must have informed why the Finance Ministry is asking Elon Musk to also consider Nigeria in his donation.

Nigeria is not alone in the shortage of ventilators, The New York Post reported that hospitals across the United States are also facing a critical shortage of the life-saving medical machine amid the rapidly-spreading pandemic.

The U.S Society of Critical Care Medicine estimates that there are only about 200,000 of the machines in the country which is inadequate to meet the demand of over 213,000 COVID-19 cases in the country.

The huge gap in supply and demand is a result of the rapidly-spreading nature of the coronavirus and the amount of time an infected patient requires the machine. Before now, health professionals said it’s rare for the average intensive care unit patient to be on a ventilator for more than a week, but coronavirus patients are requiring them for much longer.

For Nigerians on social media, they believe the action of the ministry is embarrassing for a nation with an allocation of N440.73 billion for its healthcare sector, approximately 4.16% of the N10.59 trillion 2020 budget.

Nigerians have taken to Twitter trolling the ministry and the federal government for ‘begging’ for ventilators amid glaring global shortage of the essential medical device.

Sports Editor of ClassicFM, Lagos, Temisan Okomi wrote: “I was prepared to jump on that Ministry of Finance handle “begging” Elon Musk for ventilators until I saw the Ukrainian embassy AND a former minister of health in Ukraine, “begging” as well. Extraordinary times. Means we should all take a step back & observe before reacting…”

“It’s an embarrassment. There are Nigerians that can contact Elon Musk and procure ventilators for Nigeria, armies only with an official letterhead from the FG. A Nigerian sits on the board of Gavi, the largest public-private health partnership in the world, contact her,” a political commentator, Demola Olanreaju wrote.

Bring Back Our Girls co-convener, Aisha Yesufu wrote: “Same Buhari’s government that was boasting of making PENCILS, telling doctors they should go be tailors instead of doing their RESIDENCY and harassing tech people is begging for ventilators from @elonmusk. A government with disdain for intelligence, technology and young people

“For how long have we been shouting cost of governance is too high? For how long have we been shouting that Nigerian government is broke? The lies are showing us up and the people that shouted and protected government now tell us Nigeria is broke. Were you deaf 3 years ago?” she added.

“It’s really not fair that people are chastising the government for asking for help. It’s even more unfair on the COVID-19 patients who are or will be unable to get ventilators. This thing is scarce globally. Any freaking help we can get will do. At the end of the day, if the Ministry follows up and these items make it to Nigeria, 200+ COVID-19 patients will be able to survive on the ventilators. It’s about them not all of us on Twitter trying to vet the process of asking,” Taslim Okunola, a Product Marketing Manager at Google tweeted.