Nana Kwame Bediako, also known as Cheddar or Freedom Jacob Caesar, is a Ghanaian entrepreneur and the founder of the New Force organisation. He has stated that the postponement of the highly anticipated The Convention event projected his organisation.
A few hours before it was due to start, the celebration that was originally planned to take place on Sunday, January 7, 2024 in Black Star Square in honour of Ghana’s Constitution Day was suddenly cancelled.
The government’s last-minute decision was claimed by the organisers as the cause of the cancellation.
According to the New Africa Foundation, the organizers of the event, all the speakers — Professor P. L. O. Lumumba, Julius Malema, Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, and Peter Obi– and thousands of patrons had filled the Independence Square for the event when the directive for the cancellation reached them.
During an interview on The Point of View, on Citi TV, Cheddar intimated that though he was not enthused about the turn of events, the New Force Movement has become powerful in Ghana.
Agreeing to a question by host Bernard Avle that the cancellation has given them much publicity, the Founder of the New Force Movement averred, “I think you are right. I was praying, and I fasted at the beginning of every year for one month. And I asked God to make the event successful. And when they cancelled it, I said God, I thought you said you would make it successful.”
“The question God asked me was whether he thought I wanted a successful event. So I think the successful event has been based on the cancellation. It went to all parts of Africa, it woke people up, what was the reason, why did Ghanaians have to do that? They wanted to know if it was the UN or ECOWAS that had stepped in. Lots of people had different reasons. We still don’t know why the thing is trending around Africa.”
Cheddar denied claims of unveiling his New Force at the Convention event, stressing that the event was ‘going to impact people’.
“We genuinely wanted to bring these people to open the mindset of the youth of Africa. I knew that I would still come in as the man in the mask but wanted people to know when they found out later about the contributions of the New Africa Foundation we bring into the system. This event was going to impact based on what they will say. It wasn’t the plan to unveil a New Force. It was because the entity, or whoever decided to cancel the event, needed an excuse. But even if it was so, would it have been wrong for me to unveil my movement? No, it’s not a crime,” Nana Kwame Bediako asked.
He indicated that the press conference was a great opportunity to explain themselves to the public.
“I don’t think it’s just the cancellation that has helped me to achieve my aim. But the fact that they all agreed for us to do a press conference to explain ourselves actually sent the right message to the people.”
