In April this year, former President John Mahama, who led the NDC into the 2016 elections, said: "If you ride a lame horse into a race and you lose the race, your priority must be to cure the lameness of the horse".

Referring to the horse analogy, Mr Rawlings told party supporters in Wa at the commemoration of the 38th anniversary of the 4 June 1979 uprising that the NDC lost the elections because it betrayed the principles of the revolution – probity, integrity and accountability.

“Not too long ago, I thought we heard the jockeys claiming the horses were responsible for this disgraceful failure, while one of the horses was bold enough to lay the failure at the doorstep of the jockeys.

“For me, we lost our masses because we betrayed the values of June 4.” Mr Rawlings said.

However, he continued, “if this horse-jockey business cannot be resolved comprehensively, allowing integrity, most of all, to prevail, then let both of them step aside and allow for fresh leaders with solid integrity to provide the needed leadership.”

He said the party wasted many opportunities to revert to its founding principles. “We squandered many opportunities to clean up and to restore the June 4 principles in the party. …Nobody is saying don’t make money, make it good and clean. … [It’s] sickening the kind of greed and selfishness [prevailing], look at where it landed us.”