Ebola Is Not The Highest Price Ghana Should Pay For Football

The risks are high and we have to reduce the opportunities for people coming into contact with the Ebola virus. We must avoid creating avenues for the disease to come into the country” – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hon. Hannah Tetteh

Hon Hannah Tetteh is right on all accounts. The murdering capabilities of Ebola stands uncontroverted. It has already infected more than 8,000 people, killing nearly 4,000 according to the United States Centre for Disease Control (CDC). The projection is that by January next year, about 550,000 to 1.4 million people could be infected. Ebola is really scary.

Elsewhere, there have been reports of the disease wiping away entire families. Ebola does not just kill, it kills disgracefully. For obvious reasons, some families have had the uncomfortable need to seclude, reject their own blood relatives and in some cases, leave them to die on the streets unattended to as if they were dogs. There have also been cases where health centres have refused to admit Ebola patients and I am imagining the enormous trauma relatives of such people will go through in such situations. Our brothers and sisters in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Senegal, Liberia and Nigeria have really gone through and are actually going through unbearably difficult moments.

I believe the disease will be contained in no time. I appreciate the efforts of the UN and the United States and all other countries, institutions and persons who are risking their lives for us to see the end of Ebola.

Whilst increased efforts are being made to contain the disease, it is clear that the battle has not ended yet. Nations are thus sitting on tenterhooks and are on the alert so they do not (in)advertently throw the lives of their citizens into avoidable and needless risks. One of such countries is Morocco. Morocco won the hosting rights of AFCON 2015 but has braved potential sanctions from the CAF and withdrawn from hosting the tournament because of Ebola. The CAF rejected their requests and suggestions to postpone the tournament, so Morocco wisely decided to rather “preserve the safety of [their] citizens” than hosting the tournament.

Having sensed earlier that Morocco was unwilling to put the lives of their citizens on the line, the CAF started searching for member countries whose Governments will not mind creating potential avenues for the disease to come into contact with their citizens by hosting the tournament. So they wrote to Ghana and South Africa. Swiftly, South Africa despite all their resources, advanced medical facilities and well organized health system, called a press conference to reject the CAF call on them to host the tournament citing “fiscal and Ebola challenges”.

Outrageously, whilst wealthy South Africa and Morocco with far more organised health systems are refusing to host the tournament, the Sports Minister of poverty-stricken Ghana whose economy is on its kneels, waiting to be bailed out by IMF and is yet able to deal with common cholera with doctor patient ratio miserably below the acceptable standard says he "is ready to host the AFCON 2015”. If Morocco and South Africa are refusing to host it because of Ebola, why at all must(Hon) MahamaAyariga and his Ministry think that Ghana must host it? So it is Ghana that has enough lives to spare? Or we are richer and have resourceful health centres than South Africa?

According to a recent study by Northeastern University of USA, among all the countries on the earth, Ghana has the largest probability of seeing the arrival of Ebola Viral Disease cases before the end of October 2014. Recently, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams prophetically confirmed this. Viewed against our poor medical facilities, Ghana therefore should be the last country to take chances with Ebola. However, avenues for the disease to come into the country are going to be created merely because IssaHayatou and the Confederation of African Football think that football and the interest of sponsors must be put before human lives.

We are going to organize a football tournament, just to create avenues for some people to have their per diems, qualification bonuses and allowances against the certainty of huge number of people contracting the Ebola virus so we can once again turn to the US, UN, the IMF and our benevolentwhite friends for help when we finally get infested. Is that not it?

I must put it bluntly that I find no wisdom in this. I even feel it lacks conscience.

And as if scruples are no more available in Ghana, after exposing the country to worldwide derision by flying millions of dollars on our presidential jet into Brazil to live TV coverage and soap-opera, Government Officials once again because of football, are unworriedly going to brave imminent dangers to risk the lives of Ghanaians and other Africans for their per diems, winning bonuses and allowances and that of others like IssaHayatou and the CAF, the GFA and Black Stars Management Committee Members and the interest of the sponsors of the tournament.

The government should not misread Ghanaians ability to survive of economic hardship, spiralling rate of corruption, ever intensified 'Dums) Dums)' now 'Dumkoraa' (power crisis), increased taxes, cholera and declining living standards – all at the same time to mean that we have developed the capacity to survive of Ebola.

So what will Ghana lose if we do not host the tournament? What will the people of Bawku Central gain from this unnecessary risk Honourable MahamaAyariga is seeking to plunge the country into? Is Ebola the highest price we have to pay because IssaHayatou needs a country to host African Cup of Nations?

Ghana is the only country we all have. Fortunately, on social media, some Ghanaians who value not only their lives but also that of others have started waging campaign against this irresponsible desire to host the AFCON 2015 in Ghana. I believe this is a cause worth joining. Let us all join hands together to resist the inadvertent (?) attempt to import Ebola into Ghana.

FESTIVAL GODWIN BOATENG
A worriedly concerned Ghanaian