Life is “tough” under the “incompetence” of the Mahama administration, former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings has said.

In a pre-recorded video circulated on social media, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Party (NDP) said: “My fellow Ghanaians, life is tough, things are hard, in fact life is really rough.”

“Things are so difficult that it’s not making it easy for the ordinary man to survive. In fact things are so tough that it’s not making it easy for men and women to survive in this economy,” she added.

Below is the full transcription of Mrs Rawlings’ video speech:

My fellow Ghanaians, life is tough, things are hard, in fact life is really rough. Things are so difficult that it’s not making it easy for the ordinary man to survive. In fact things are so tough that it’s not making it easy for men and women to survive in this economy.

Take a look at the electricity situation. How can we live in a country where electricity is higher than the rent that you are actually paying for? How can electricity be higher than water and everything else put together? How can electricity be higher than your salary that you receive per month? It’s unacceptable. I’m looking at a situation where we can change this and change it for good.

Fellow Ghanaians, the electricity situation is being toyed with by the government. The very government that created this problem is now telling us that they actually worried about the situation that electricity is putting us in.

Electricity creates Industry, electricity creates a life for human beings, a livelihood for everybody in the country, whether it’s education, whether it is health, whether it’s recreation, everything depends on electricity and water, so, if a government sits back and creates a problem where we can see clearly that it is their inefficiency and their incompetence that [are] leading us to this situation, and then turn round and tell us they are worried, it should make us very worried having this kind of government in office.

Fellow Ghanaians, yes electricity, we talk about ‘dumsor dumsor’, we even make jokes about it, but this is a serious issue. Businesses cannot continue when there is no electricity, our businesses are closing down – small and big ones – they are moving to other countries, which should not be so. How are our young people going to get employment? Over taxation is creating a serious problem for the businesses, and then added to it is the electricity then there is water, then there is also the rent problem. In effect, what our government is trying to tell us is that they cannot run this country, and, therefore, we the people should suffer their incompetence. This is unacceptable. Yes, indeed, this is totally unacceptable.

We have Ghanaians in Ghana who can solve this problem. We have competent engineers home and abroad, who can come together and solve this problem. Indeed, we the NDP can help solve this problem, instead of running to other countries and asking those countries to come and solve Ghana’s problems.

If we do not deal with electricity, which has a spiral effect on everything else, there’s no way our economy is going anywhere, whether it’s for shoe factory, whether it’s for sugar factory, or anything else, we are not going anywhere. We have to solve this and solve it fast.

The other thing that I think we should look at critically is the metering of electricity. How do you get somebody, who has no clue about what kind of meters to bring into this country, to bring in pre-paid meters – faulty pre-paid meters – and force them on poor innocent Ghanaians? Why? While you are moving the electricity at a fast rate, you are also discouraging us from making good use of what we have by bringing in faulty meters. This is also unacceptable, totally, and for me, on just this alone, we must vote NDC out. Ghanaians vote them out. So, all of us (women, men, the youth, rich, poor) let us all come together and bring our voices out on this issue. Do not sit on the fence. The fence is going to break if you sit on the fence. Let us all make our voices heard clearly on things that are going on that are not helping any of us.