Hey, Don Willie, almost all your “button men” are now with me – so how come you won the war! Now, Soludo’s gonna be the new Don (my eyes must be deceiving me) – I had all your “hitmen” with me! You mus’ta had help from outside forces! I refuse to concede I lost and I'll fight on. Yes, I was robbed of my certain victory – I had all the gangsters (raging)!

This is the narrative that an apparently shocked and unbelieving Senator Andy Uba, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the just-concluded Anambra State gubernatorial election, holds as his gospel truth.

Uba’s campaign organisation which described the outcome of the election, as “a charade that did not reflect the wishes of the people of Anambra State”, also said: “Senator Andy Uba is a victim of widespread electoral fraud and manipulation by INEC in cohorts with the Willie Obiano regime and the security forces deployed to oversee the Anambra State Governorship Election.”

His organisation further alluded: “It is surprising that APGA that lost almost 80% of its stalwarts through defection to the APC before the election came out ‘victorious’. A sitting APGA Deputy Governor, seven members of the House of Representatives, 10 members of the Anambra State House of Assembly, the APGA party’s member of Board of Trustees, many serving SAs, SSAs, in addition to a serving PDP Senator all defected to the APC very timely before the election, yet APGA emerged ‘victorious’. This is quite ridiculous!”

Obviously, an apparent firm believer in the entrenched culture of political gangsterism subscribed to by the main body of the Nigerian political class – that credits the winning of elections to the amount of forces ranged to deliver electoral victories through jiggery-pokery methodologies, as against the electorate deciding that outcome – a still stupefied Andy Uba has certainly not smelt the coffee – that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been brewing for a while now!

INEC’s evolving and deepening deployment of technology is precipitating a paradigm shift that threatens to see quite a lot of politicians become endangered species.

In Edo State, where this INEC’s particular “coffee brew” was first tasted, one could imagine that the analogy of a doomed sinking ship, with all the rats bailing out with prompt alacrity must have crossed the mind of Governor Godwin Obaseki in the days leading up to the Edo governorship election as the hemorrhaging of political cronies, including from within his government, must have given the impression his was a sinking ship.

To a lesser extent, same could be said of the challenges faced by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, where INEC next served their nascent “brew”. In Ondo, as well as in Edo before it, INEC's deployment of the main ingredient “technology” in its new brew, in the form of the Z-Pad, which facilitated real time “uploading” and public viewing of results on INEC’s result viewing portal (IREV) was the game changer.

In both States – it didn't matter, the sheer number of political “lions and tigers” anyone had in their corner as the electoral outcome was generally acclaimed to have been willed by the people (vote buying and other shenanigans notwithstanding).

The amount of political gangster’s anyone had in their corner, has also not mattered in the outcome of the Anambra election – that has been generally acclaimed to have been in conformity with the wishes of the people (all shortcomings aside).

Indeed, notable and diverse congratulatory messages sent to Professor Charles Soludo, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate and winner of the Anambra State governorship election, buttresses this widespread sentiment.

From a globetrotting President Muhammadu Buhari, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), through to the leader of the APC in Anambra State, Senator Chris Ngige, Nigeria’s Minister of Labour, who had tellingly asserted that a non-existent primary election produced Andy Uba as the APC governorship candidate – the promptness and diversity of congratulatory messages has indeed been instructive.

However, it is the message of concession and congratulations, whilst enumerating the shortcomings of the election, issued by the runner-up and candidate of the PDP in the just-concluded Anambra election, Valentine Ozigbo, that is truly commendable and should be a reference point to politicians of the Andy Uba hue.

Prof. Soludo has won the election and he should be congratulated and mindful of the onerous responsibilities that will be his. However, the lessons and challenges from the Anambra election, some of which Soludo himself pointed out on election day, must not be lost!

The Anambra election, set amidst an atmosphere of palpable fear, unveiled the very worrisome spectre of how future elections might evolve in areas of the country beset by raging insecurity. Militarization of elections, as seen clearly in Anambra is not a panacea.

Stemming from a deep rooted lack of trust in government (bad governance and corruption) and the electoral system (history of questionable electoral outcomes superintended by INEC), elections in Nigeria’s fourth republic, which has been characterized by voter apathy – witnessed a new historic low in voter turnout in the just concluded Anambra election, where only 10 per cent of registered voters in the state voted.

Into this unpalatable “broth” of security and voter apathy challenges – came INEC's monumental (and there can be no other word for it) technological and logistical howlers!

The newly introduced multifunctional all-in-one bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) device, reportedly malfunctioned in 45 per cent (Yiaga Africa) of polling units across the State, leading to delays in queues, voting times and disenfranchisement.

Logistical conundrums also led to the late deployment of polling officials and election materials, precipitating delayed opening of polls and in some cases non-opening of polling units.

It must be noted, that while INEC’s result collation process is becoming transparent through the use of technology, the Anambra election has shown clearly that the deployment of technology in itself is not the be-all and end-all!

Promise must be fulfilled – it can never be an end in itself! INEC must responsibly carry out an audit of the BVAS towards ensuring that it eliminates all software/technical glitches in future elections. It must, once and for all, also resolve its logistical issues (at least the ones within its sphere). Folks who brave the hydra-headed stalking monsters of poverty and insecurity in Nigeria to vote must under no circumstances be disenfranchised by INECs blunders.

The lessons from Anambra must be learnt and we must continue to strive towards a more perfect union. INEC’s deployment of technology with the emphasis on “effective” must continue apace even as our political gangsters come to grips with the “brewing” reality.

In the end, it could just be that Senator Uba’s refusal to concede has its inspirations. Could it just be that the “mythical” votes allocated by the Supreme Court, that sprang a man from 4th to 1st position in neighbouring Imo State is an inspiration!

Uba’s campaign lamented: “It is inconceivable that our candidate, who polled over 200,000 votes in the APC primary election could be allocated a slightly above 43,000 by INEC.”

Could it just be that there is an inspiration to use the courts to give life to 200,000 votes, which according to Senator Chris Ngige and other dissenting APC stalwarts, where votes “conjured” from thin air in a disputed APC primary election! This is Nigeria – and 3rd to 1st could just be seen as more achievable than 4th to 1st. Only time will tell.

•Victor Ikhatalor, Human Rights Defender and Good Governance Advocate; Twitter: @MyTribeNigeria, Email: kingjvic7@gmail.com

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