“I want the NPP to get this straight that if they do not withdraw the ‘Ecomini’ T-Shirts they have put out there, all we have to do is to print T-Shirts of a short man with a big head and a long ‘ntampi’ [marijuana] on his lips; then we see which of the two would get a better market value,” Samuel Okudjato Ablakwa, Deputy Minister for Information noted in a warning to the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The Deputy Minister was speaking at the inauguration of the Dome Kwabenya Constituency branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Youth Wing.
Mr. Ablakwa, sounding angry and wagging his forefinger towards the sky while speaking, said it was ‘senseless’ for the NPP to print T-Shirts that has inscriptions which ridicules President Atta Mills simply because he had a slip of tongue in mentioning the word ‘economy’.
About a fortnight ago, impressively designed T-Shirts that has various inscriptions that ridicule President Mills was released.
The NPP, has claimed responsibility for the release of the T-Shirts but described it as a “political satire”.
NPP National Youth Organizer, Anthony Karbo, speaking on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana show last Thursday said he sees nothing wrong with the T-Shirts and that s far as his party was concerned, it was only a political satire.
Meanwhile reports suggest that a couple of professional fashion designers are competing for exclusive copyright rights to print and circulate the said T-Shirts both in Ghana and abroad.
Though Okudjato Ablakwa did not mention any name of whose caricature would be on the T-Shirt, his audience burst in laughter and started screaming the name of Nana Akufo-Addo, the Presidential candidate of the NPP.
Indeed, certain elements in the NDC, without providing an iota of evidence, have consistently portrayed Nana Addo as someone who uses narcotics drugs. The same Nana Addo has also been publicly described by ex-President Rawlings as a ‘shortman’ and Nana himself has admitted that he is indeed a short man.
The ‘econimi’ shirts have not gone down well with the NDC and several of the party’s supporters have described the shirts as provocative.