Who is Ghana’s masked presidential contender?

SEMAFOR

Giant billboards featuring a man in a mask and the simple message “leadership for the next generation #thenewforce” have appeared in major cities across Ghana in recent weeks. Other billboards, featuring a masked man flanked by other people with covered faces, have been rolled out as part of the campaign.

The billboards have been placed beside busy streets in major cities such as Accra, Kumasi, Cape Coast, Takoradi, Ho, and Tamale.

The campaign issued a statement late last month in which it said the identity of the masked person will be revealed in “the shortest possible time,” along with “policy objectives and goals.” However, a spokesperson did not respond to Semafor Africa when asked when the person’s identity would be made public.

→ Why is this happening? Ghana will hold presidential elections in exactly a year. Power has alternated between the two main political parties — the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) — since the country’s switch to multi-party democracy in 1992. However, critics of the main parties say their governance has been marred by nepotism, corruption, and financial mismanagement. 

The five smaller parties are fragmented and their combined tally typically makes up less than 5% of the vote in elections. Campaigning ahead of next year’s election is gathering pace at a time when Ghanaians are enduring the worst economic crisis in a generation — one that forced the NPP government to turn to the IMF for a $3 billion loan.

→ Who’s behind this? It is unclear who the man behind the mask on the billboards is, but most people believe it is a businessman named Nana Kwame Bediako, also known as Cheddar. “It is obvious it is Cheddar, the stature of the individual looks exactly like him,” graphic designer Felix Frimpong, an Accra resident, told Semafor Africa…