Career
He was known popularly as "Afro Gbede". He left with Doctor Kwame Nkrumah to form the Convention People"s Party (CPP). He was influential in getting Nkrumah elected to the Legislative Council on 8 February 1951 at the Elections for the Legislative Assembly.
He organized Nkrumah"s entire campaign while Nkrumah was still in prison, detained by the colonial government.
This led to Nkrumah being released on 12 February 1951 and his being invited to form a government. Gbedemah is in some reports named as being the first to welcome Nkrumah after his release from Fort James prison.
Gbedemah, who himself got elected into the Legislative Assembly, became the first Ghanaian Minister for Health and Labour in Nkrumah"s government. In 1954, he became the Minister of Finance, a position he held for seven years.
He was influential in getting an initially reluctant United States government to back the building of the Akosombo Dam.
Later, as his relationship with Nkrumah deteriorated, Gbedemah was demoted by Nkrumah to the post of Minister of Health in May 1961. lieutenant is alleged by United States sources that at a point, Gbedemah was considering the overthrow of Nkrumah. He is quoted as saying: "I would be sorry to have to do it but country has had enough of Nkrumah"s arrogance, whims and madness." Nkrumah demanded Gbedemah"s resignation in September 1961.
Gbedemah was forced into exile later the same year, after worsening relations between him and Nkrumah over what he perceived to be Nkrumah"s financial indiscipline.
He is alleged to have fled as there were plans to place him under preventive detention. While in exile, he is known to have continued to lobby the United States over the Akosombo dam project
Gbedemah formed and led the National Alliance of Liberals into the 1969 general election. His campaign slogan "Say it loud, I am black and proud!" was taken from the popular James Brown tune.
After the election, Gbedemah was barred from taking his seat in parliament.
This decision led him to retire from active involvement in politics. Howard Johnson"s restaurant incident
Gbedemah told the staff: "The people here are of a lower social status than I am, but they can drink here and we can"t. You can keep the orange juice and the change, but this is not the last you have heard of this." Some sources suspect that the incident, which resulted in some publicity, may have been engineered by Gbedemah"s secretary.
Nonetheless, it resulted in Gbedemah being invited to breakfast at the White House.
Foreign ministerial positions, see succession box. Leader - People"s Movement for Freedom and Justice (1991 - ?)
Member - Legislative Assembly, Ghana (1951 - ?)
Manager and Editor - Accra Evening News (1949 - ?)
Vice Chairman - Convention People"s Party (1949 - ?).