The Confederation of African football has written to several countries to consider hosting the continental football showpiece in the event that hosts Morocco pull out over the deadly Ebola virus ravaging in west Africa in particular.
Ghana’s sports minister Mahama Ayariga has stated that the four-time African champions have the resources to host the competition with less than three months to the scheduled date and will consider Caf’s request.
His assertion has been met with a heavy public backlash from the Ghana Medical Association and other civil society organisations who argue that hosting the Nations Cup puts the entire country at risk in the face of the dsease killing more than 4,500 people.
President Mahama has allayed the fears of Ghanaians, saying his cabinet has not taken a definite decision to host the 16-nation competition.
"I am the president of Ghana. I chair the cabinet. No such decision has been taken by the cabinet advising me to accept to host," Mahama said.
"As president, I don’t want to see Ebola spread to my country and so if Morocco expresses concern that that is one of the concerns for which they want a postponement, we are going to look at that carefully before we host Afcon or not, but certainly 2017 we are putting in a bid for it."
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