The founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings on Saturday disappointed hundreds of Ghanaians who were expecting him to throw "artillery" and "barrage" at the party's 25th Anniversary rally at the Ashaiman Mandela Park in the Greater Accra Region.

The founder who appeared well composed and spirited for the occasion eased tension at the place with his fatherly advice and admonishment to the amazement of his party folks.

The founder used the occasion to call for renewed spirit of probity and accountability. He stressed the need to recapture the spirit that stifled corruption and placed corrupt officials under constant check. The founder called on party supporters and the executives to approach the party's unity building agenda with sincerity and truthfulness to ensure genuine reconciliation and unity.

On the reasons why the party lost the 2016 election, implicitly in agreement with Former President Mahama's assertion that the reasons are multifaceted, he said the electoral college constituted by the party and failure to monitor the process effectively led to malfeasance and manipulation of the process which usurped the power of the genuine supporters of the party which automatically, denied the party the opportunity of going into the election with some genuine supporters on its side. He also mentioned stifling of the party's core values as another reason why the party lost the election.

According to the founder, it's important members do everything possible to recapture the spirit of probity and accountability before it becomes too late.

Former President John Mahama who spoke before the founder, repeated his call on party supporters and sympathisers to relegate the issue about who leads the NDC in 2020 to the background and concentrate on building the party to make it a winnable machine.

He used his lame horse-jockey analogy to explain his point and to clear the distortions, misinterpretations and twists put on that clarion call (analogy).

Mr Mahama advised party folks to concentrate on the strengthening of the party's pillars to make the 2020 election easier for whoever will emerge the party's candidate.