Leader of the New Force political movement, Nana Kwame Bediako, popularly known as Cheddar or Freedom Jacob Caesar, has said his goal to become President of Ghana was a divine calling from above.
He explained that even though he does not even understand what politics really entailed, he decided to run for office because a voice told him to go for it, just like it does for many other things in his life.
“First of all, I’m not a politician. Truly, I don’t understand the pros and cons of politics. In fact, like I tell people, I don’t even know how to become an assemblyman. I don’t know what to do if you tell me to become an MP or a minister and that’s why I went straight for the top post because I think that’s where you do what is right,” he said.
“I feel like I’m a reasoned leader and this is some kind of a calling. I’ve always followed the voice, what I believe in and what the voice is telling me on where to go,” Nana Kwame Bediako said when he spoke in a radio interview on Joy FM on Friday morning (December 12, 2023).
He added that even though he had been doing his part to develop the nation as a private investor, being President would give him the right laws, authority, conditions and leverage to embark on developmental projects on a national scale.
“This NPP and NDC have been going on for about four decades and one would have expected more change in terms of human and social development. Myself, I’m a developer and an investor. I’ve tried to develop landmarks across the country but the pace of development, I feel we are still running behind schedule,” Cheddar said.
Middle class
Queried on what he would offer Ghana as a President, Cheddar said it was his vision to build a robust economy based on a strong middle class.
Nana Kwame Bediako said as a developer, he believed that Ghana could achieve this by building more integrated industrial hubs and cities to provide more jobs for the youth and move people from “minimum salary to an average salary.”
The leader of the New Force movement stated that the entire nation’s economy had been centered on Accra, the capital, at the neglect of the various regions, a move that was slowing down its developmental agenda.
He explained that most of the nation’s natural regions were found in other regions and as such it would be prudent for industrial cities and hubs to be built around these minerals to cut down logistical costs which would boost development.
To buttress his point, Cheddar cited how the harbour city of Tema, which arguably was the most industrial part of the country with an oil refinery was situated far away from Takoradi where the oil was being extracted.
He also stressed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with learning form the western world because they had already instituted such middle class and industrial systems which had proven to be responsible for their rapid economic growth.
“And there’s no problem for us to copy the white people what they’ve done. The system worked over there. We have to replicate it. We’re here being pro-black and fighting white people this, white people that,” he said.
“They stole our money, they stole our gold, they went to build their country, they did it well, now we were all running back to them. The best way to defeat your enemy and show them that you are smarter and wiser is to replicate what they are doing and do it better,” Mr Bediako added.
