₦airaland Forum

fergie001:
You think they will listen to him?
Orbih has rebuffed any meeting with GO and said all should go to the field, hence his meeting their 'oga'.

GO offered Deputy or SSG, and they said NO.

Ogbeide-Ihama is from Edo South, infact from the same LGA as Obaseki as well and was one of those who fell at the Primaries thanks to Obaseki & Ayu.

The plan is to do giveaway like Samuel Anyanwu.

I don't understand what you mean by "do giveaway like Samuel Anyanwu".
Please can you explain?

Seunfretty:
They are playing with a back 5 but believe me I don't think they are packing the boss...there are many ways to success in football...u can take the attacking or the pragmatic approach...against cameroun can u confidently say they parked the bus??...the team is not there yet and shouldn't b hyped yet too but I think they are only trying to play based on the kind of players we have ...we don't really have the quality of midfielders that can do our 4-3-3 well...cos ndidi is out...sometimes u have to play based on wat u can get out of your squad...3-4-3 came from Italy...fine Italy is known for having defensive discipline but can they are also an attacking outfit and have seen them play 4-3-3 and dominate possession t..the question you guyz should ask is wat is our 3-4-3 hits the wall on Friday...do we have a plan be cos believe me in the journey to the final that will likely happen...and we will need to go out of our shell and get more foots upfront to attack...I pray they win on friday

Nigeria is not playing any 3-4-3. They are playing 5-4-1. I would have no qualms if we play this way against teams better than us like France, Argentina and Brazil. But playing so defensive against lower ranked African teams is so painful for me to watch. This defensive style can only be justified if they come back home with the trophy especially now that we are the highest ranked team left in the competition.

Preenxess:
Make wike loyalists dey deceive themselves. Fubara will still have the last laff at the end. I see Oshiomole's style of buying 80% the state assembly members over time. Wike should watch his back as he's now a bat. Even APC members are not happy with him

Lobbying the Assembly members and getting most of them on his side should have been Fubara's strategy from the onset.
I have warned since two moths ago that the Governor should stop his losing battle with the Assembly.
What was the essence of burning the Assembly chambers and later demolishing the whole complex?
What exactly did he gain by those reckless actions?
The people around him are deceiving him that those 27 Wike assembly members have lost their seats.
He is busy doing street parades and instituting all manners of lawsuits which he has never gotten any positive judgement.
He has the knife to cut off Wike's neck but prefers to shadow box.
Get those Assembly men on your side and Wike will give up.
Simple as ABC.

Parking the bus with five or six defenders against lower ranked teams, and eventually winning with the odd goal, does not make one a great tactician.
Nigerians should stop celebrating this mediocrity
In almost all the AFCON we have participated in since 1978, we got to the semi finals while playing the free flowing football we are known for.
So what extra ordinary thing has this coach achieved with this negative football?

No matter how you try to paint it, that Peseiro of a coach is below the standard that we need to manage the Super Eagles.
He is not playing three at the back, he is playing five and often ends the matches with six defenders.
Mourinho, or any good coach for that matter, doesn't need to play five or six defenders against lower ranked teams to be defensively compact.
Apart from a few tournaments, getting to the semi finals has always been the minimum the Super Eagles achieve at the AFCON so I wonder what extra ordinary thing that has been achieved here.

JasonScoolari:
Angola has always been a pain in the neck for the Super Eagles... I remember what they did to us in 2006 and 2010.

Goodluck to both side.

Since June 2005 when they held us to a draw at the Sani Abacha stadium in Kano to qualify ahead of us for the 2006 world cup, the Super Eagles has never met Angola in a competitive match.

EngrEgghead:
I'm still thinking. Can anyone be planning wedding without first visiting the relatives.

Yes, in Nollywood.
This story will make a good Nollywood movie.

I didn't find any of the memes funny at all. Some of them are outrightly distasteful.

CommonSense1967:
If Buhari can influence members of the House to impeach Tinubu, then that's Tinubu's problem.
Tinubu will not have the right to set the House on fire and then have it demolished just because he disagree with why he was being impeached.
The House of Assembly has the right to impeach the president as long as they follow the laws of the land. Whether they are sponsored or not is irrelevant. Yes, he has to take in in good faith or try to influence the members to think otherwise but he cannot demolish the House just prevent them from doing their jobs.

Your comments are based purely on the law and not the usual emotional comments that dot the social media spaces. Most people find it difficult to separate their emotions from the reality. Kudos to you.

I have said it countless times here that the demolition of the Assembly complex by the Governor was unnecessary and added no advantages to the Governor in his battle with Wike. It doesn't matter whether you support Fubara or Wike, anyone supporting that demolition does not mean well for the people of Rivers State.

coins501:
It appears you don't understand how government works, if a governor wants to make your office redundant, it's as easy as anything easy you can think of. Wike even used George Kelly the SA on Special Projects instead of of Commissioner for Works until he later Appointed him as Commissioner for Works. New PermSecs were appointed yesterday to make their ministries uncomfortable for them. You're not up to speed Bros.
Wike and his people are complaining bitterly everyday and you feel he is winning?

You are right. Only the naive will think that Wike has won the war.
How does he win when Fubara is still the Governor, and with even more independence?
Apart from ego, the governor loses nothing by re-appointing the commissioners or even re-presenting the budget.
Those commissioners had already been made redundant even before they were screened.
The permanent secretaries will run the ministries in Fubara's government.

ddippset:
Fubara has to abide for now, to the 8 commandments of Tinubu..

His Supreme Court case is still undecided and Tinubu has come to Wike's rescue..

Even the representation of the budget, I know he will do it, he might send his deputy.

But the commandment I am still waiting for, is the one pertaining the Local Government elections.

He has been ordered not to appoint caretaker chairmen.

I do not expect him to abide by that one,, that wasn't a direct fall out of the crisis.

Governors are appointing caretakers across the country and you cannot command Sim not to.

If he obeys that one then he will dig his political grave.

Before the Abuja Accord, the Governor was set to dissolve the Local Government councils and appoint caretaker committees in their stead.
That was the reason for the clause Number 8 in the accord or directive.
Their tenure is set to expire by June.

If Kelechi is match fit, it is a no-brainer to start him behind Osimhen.
However, I think Zaidu has lost the right to start with that wasteful performance in our first match.
The coach should try other players in the left full back position.

He sent the names to the same House of Assembly led by Martin Amaehule?
So I ask again, what really was the essence of demolishing that gigantic House of Assembly complex that will take billions of naira to rebuild?
What exactly did Governor Fubara gain by that demolition?

shaqhead:
I guess our disagreement lies in the fact that you are looking through the keyhole to judge the situation and I choose to look at the big picture. You are also giving Fubara some phantom victory that he knows he hasn't got. The fight is about one word CONTROL and right now Fubara has little to none of it!

Ambode and Obaseki are examples of HOW NOT TO and HOW TO wrest free from the grip of a Godfather! You are right on the count that Fubara employed too much brawn over brains but at the same time saying he won anything is just pure flattery!

At the end of the day time is the revealer of all things and how long this quiet lasts. This is not peace but a cease-fire! Have a great day

I have maintained since December 12th that Fubara had already won the war.
If you say that the fight is about CONTROL, then he has already won
As at October 30th, even Fubara himself thought that his time as Governor was up.
As at October 30th, Fubara had little or no control over his own government.
By December 12th, these two shortcomings had been substantially overcome.
Before the crisis, Wike controlled even minor details like who is allowed to visit the Governor at Government House.
Now, almost all of Wike's men are out of the Brick House.
By the time that the tenure of the LGA Chairmen expires in June this year, Fubara will exsercise even greater control of the state.
Before the crisis, it was given that Wike would produce the next set of LGA Chairmen. Will that still be the case?
Wike was supposed to have decamped to APC in December but he is so afraid to do so.
I wonder what else you will see to realise that the Governor had already won the war.
Maybe until you see Wike literally dead ?.

Rutherford2019:
Fubara is just a weakling
He should go head on to his enemies
Train agberos from all the local government area of the state and place them on payroll monthly
Just make the state a dread for both wike and the house of Assembly members
How can you be a governor and wike will comfortably come to your state and hold meetings..
By now Rivers should have been no go area for wike

I believe it is this kind of emotional but thoughtless advice that the governor has been getting.
Is crushing Wike what this is all about?
How do you even go about crushing Wike without incurring repercussions from Tinubu.
Is it not the same unhelpful strategy that made him to demolish the Assembly complex and people were hailing him?
What exactly did he gain by that action except the humiliating Abuja Accord.
That's why I said the governor needs more brains than brawns in his team.
He has already won the war to secure his first term.
What he needs now is to endear himself more to the Rivers people by providing good governance and playing the right politics to decimate Wike's camp.

shaqhead:
Then how do you say Fubara has freed himself from Wikes grip when he is been asked to re-present a budget which has already been passed? How do you function independently when you still are at the mercy of Wikes men? The politicking for 2nd term has started already and if Fubara has not galvanised a solid support base by now then I wish him well!

When did the grip on Obaseki by Oshiomole manifest itself? When he sought second term, remember? If not because Oshiomole had lost favor with some powerful people in Abuja and Edo people stood solidly behind Obaseki, he would have been given the Ambode treatment.

Yes I agree with you that Fubara played reckless politics with the Assembly complex demolition anud he disappointed so many people who now see him as weak for signing that agreement which immediately gave Wike an upper hand!

What is the problem in representing the budget?
Apart from ego, what exactly will the governor lose in representing it?
What was the hurry in presenting the budget to his 4 man Assembly in the first place?
That move was just another unnecessary show of bravado. Fubara's team need to use their brains more than their muscles.
Please stop referring to Ambode and Obaseki. This war in Rivers is not about a second term.

shaqhead:
The War is not won by Fubara until he wins second term. I must say he only got a temporary breather. It is a two phase battle that makes up the war. Fubara hasn't won any! Right now with Wikes men back in control of the state house of assembly, Fubara shouldn't sleep with his eyes closed. That they signed an agreement doesn't mean that Wike can't renege on it and the presidency will play dumb if it serves their interest. It is politics, you play or get played! Betrayal comes with the terrain!

The war is not about Fubara's second term. It is about he surviving his first term and freeing himself from Wike's grips.
It was inevitable that Wike will eventually regain control of the Assembly. I stated this earlier.
Anybody that thought otherwise or that Wike's men had lost their seats is simply naive.
The Governor adopted the wrong strategy in fighting the Assembly. If he played the right politics, he should have got more members by now.
That demolition was just too reckless and didn't help him in any way.

buharibanjo:
How una de take know who win?

Read the article again.
In a war, there may be many battles. One can win some battles and lose others.
But the ultimate objective is to win the war.
The Rivers crisis is about the seat of the governor and control of the state.
Governor Fubara keeps his seat (the red biro) at least till 2027 and he has freed himself substantially from the grips of his godfather.
That is the war he had long won. What is more important than these two?

The crisis in Rivers State came to the public burner when the House of Assembly attempted to impeach the Governor of the state, Sim Fubara.
However, keen observers know that the surprising frosty relationship between the Gover and his godfather, former Governor Nyesom Wike predated the infamous impeachment notice.
The Assembly chambers was burnt in a futile attempt to prevent the Assembly from sitting.
One thing led to the other and President Tinubu eventually intervened to broker a ceasefire.

That is where Fubara won the war.
The intervention of the President has ensured that he would no longer be impeached and it is most likely that he would spend his constitutional four years tenure as Governor.
The whole war was about the seat of the Governor and from all indications, he won't be removed any longer.
Without the intervention of the President, knowledgeable people in the politics of the state know that Wike would have impeached the Governor. Constitutionally, he has all the arsenals to achieve it.

On top of keeping his seat, the crisis has afforded Fubara the opportunity of untangling himself from the choking clutches of his godfather.
There are stories of the almost inhuman conditions he was made to operate as Governor.
Stories of how Wike remotely controls everything in the Government House, even to the point of determining who should and not visit the Governor, abound to those who have their ears to the ground.
Most despicable were stories of how he was being disrespected by his own appointees.
Clearly, that can not be the case anymore especially as he is no longer on talking terms with his godfather.
Fubara is now finally in charge of his government.

Anyone in Fubara's shoes should have seen these as victory and cease to fight.
He should have stopped his dispute with the Assembly where he has only 4 out of 31 members.
I thought he would be more interested in getting the Assembly to reverse the suspension of his 4 supporters so that they can resume to sit with their colleagues.
He needs those his 4 supporters in the House rather than out of it. At least, they can be his eyes and ears in the House.
There is no need in continuing a losing battle in the Assembly when he has already won the war.

But Fubara is not being strategic in managing the victory.
On the surface, it looks like he is being reconciliatory but that is far from the truth in reality.
He is the one now taking battles to the other side.
He should have avoided being spurred on to fight on and go for the jugular of Wike.
These later day supporters are not leading him on because they support him. In fact, most of them did not support him during the elections.
He is their darling today because they see him as a tool through which they can destroy his godfather.
Some are seeing this as an opportunity to get into the government and cash out.
Some have tried desperately to make it look like an ethnic war between the Ijaws and the Ikwerres. They know their motives.

Fubara should know better.
He should know the motives of these emergency supporters leading him to continue battling when he had already won the war.
He should play the right politics now that will bring the crisis to a manageable level so that governance does not continue to suffer.
He has won the war for the seat of Governor and liberated himself from the clutches of his godfather.
But listening to war mongers and urging him to go for the kill might put his victories in jeopardy.
In politics, one must learn to choose his battles wisely.

https://www.nairaland.com/7938508/rivers-crisis-gov-fubara-already

NOTE:
I did this piece on the 12th of December before Governor Fubara demolished the House of Assembly complex that eventually led to the humiliating terms of settlement he signed in Abuja. The war had long been won by Fubara but he and his supporters failed to recognise it and kept on fighting instead of consolidating on the victory. What was the point of demolishing the Assembly complex? How exactly did that demolition help the Governor?

For those who thought otherwise and were urging him to continue fighting when he had already won the war, what has the Governor gained between December 12th and now? Politics is more of brains than brawn.

wirinet:
I appreciate you and my friend Deepsight, you guys are offering an invaluable service by taking your valuable time to attempt to enlighten Nigerians. Yes, sometimes emotions get the better of us and results in some harsh and unsavory comments, but I am glad ir never degenerates into insults and verbal violence.

Having said that, I believe the problem is not the law. Agreed our constitution is very faulty, but the good, clear and unambiguous aspects are not obeyed, they are abused by those that wield power. The problems are Nigerians, who believe in "might is right" philosophy. Once you wield power, that gives you the privilege of being above the law. Dont you find it strange that an election conducted by INEC would overturned and declared fraudulent, and no one, not one INEC official would be prosecuted. That means the election was rigged by ghosts.

No law is perfect, afterall the British operates an unwritten constitution, it is sincerity on the part of the operators and the people that gives validity and respect to laws.

In this case of defection, the problem is the law.
The law was intended to make defectors lose their seats but the implementation was left at the discretion of the same legislators so how would it work?
Imagine a scenario where the law says that anyone found guilty of stealing would be punished by the head of his family. How many thieves would be jailed?
Until the law is amended to remove the implementation from the speaker or presiding officer, we will continue to witness legislators defecting and getting away with it.
There are some other loopholes too that need to be covered such as the exception of division in the political party and the silence in the law on the defection of members of the executive.

Kukutente23:
How is a letter the most satisfactory evidence
People like you find it very hard to learn. You've been wrong from the set go but you can't find it in you to accept your wrong.
There's no need to amend any law. What is needed is for the law to be obeyed by those in position of trust instead of acting above the law.
Even if you amend the law a million times, those who have made it an habit to disregard the law will still do.
Tinubu just gave a "directive" to a sitting gov to re-present a budget to defected members. Where is that in our laws? Are you going to amend the laws on that too?
Keep giving lame excuses

I have learnt not to argue with people like you. People who know nothing about what they are arguing about.

DeepSight:
Accept my apologies for the earlier intemperate words.

No qualms. Sorry for my own harsh words too.
We can argue and learn from one another.
From you, I have learnt that the letter of defection is not absolute even though I maintain that it is still the most satisfactory evidence of defection.
The two majors things I have posited are:
1. The member losing his seat is never done automatically as the constitution prescribes a process to be followed which you yourself have outlined here
2. There is need to amend those provisions so that we can make it more water tight and reduce this indiscriminate jumping from one party to the other.

DeepSight:
Well if we are to stay consistent, such a member can equally claim that any such letter is forged.

Saying that his own letter was forged will be far fetched. That would then require a criminal investigation and they know the legal implications.
They would not deny their own letter.

DeepSight:
Please see my post above. I have cited Section 109. And yes, its exact words are "evidence satisfactory to the house."
With this, show your own honesty and retract this.

I had already seen that you are knowledgeable and taken in some of your points. But because you started abusing me first, I had to talk down on you too. That's the rule here. They don't argue without throwing abuses and if you abuse me, I abuse you back.

You are right that the letter of defection is not the only evidence.
I should have said the most satisfactory evidence.
But in practice, these guys will deny in court that they have defected.
But with the letter, they can not deny.

DeepSight:
Please see my post above. I have cited Section 109. And yes, its exact words are "evidence satisfactory to the house."
With this, show your own honesty and retract this.

Oh sorry, I didn't know it's the same person I have been talking to all along

DeepSight:
Right. I am back. Here, I reproduce Section 109 of the Constitution in full. Kindly note the bold words.

Section 109 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
(1) A member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if -

(a) he becomes a member of another legislative house;

(b) any other circumstances arise that, if he were not a member of that House, would cause him to be disqualified for election as such a member;

(c) he ceases to be a citizen of Nigeria;

(d) he becomes President, Vice-President, Governor, Deputy Governor or a Minister of the Government of the Federation or a Commissioner of the Government of a State or a Special Adviser;

(e) save as otherwise prescribed by this Constitution, he becomes a member of a commission or other body established by this Constitution or by any other law;

(f) without just cause he is absent from meetings of the House of Assembly for a period amounting in the aggregate to more than one-third of the total number of days during which the House meets in any one year;

(g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected:

Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored; or

(h) the Speaker of the House of Assembly receives a certificate under the hand of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission stating that the provisions of section 110 of this Constitution have been complied with in respect of the recall of the member.

(2) The Speaker of the House of Assembly shall give effect to subsection (1) of this section, so however that the Speaker or a member shall first present evidence satisfactory to the House that any of the provisions of that subsection has become applicable in respect of the member.

(3) A member of a House of Assembly shall be deemed to be absent without just cause from a meeting of the House of Assembly unless the person presiding certifies in writing that he is satisfied that the absence of the member from the meeting was for a just cause.

Interpretation.

You can see clearly that nowhere is it required that the Speaker receives a letter of defection contrary to your claims. Via Subsection 1(g) we can see that a member vacates his seat where -

"being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected:

Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored."

We further see that all that is required is that the Speaker provides "evidence satisfactory to the house" of that defection. Thus, any evidence may be provided, including videos of their own words, statements and reception into the APC.

I hope we are clear now, and in the spirit of intellectual honesty, you will be as honest as I have been, and concede the point.

Yes, I see the point you're trying to make.
The constitution dies not specifically say it is only the letter of the member.
Satisfactory evidence can be interpreted both ways.
There is a reason why the letter ifrom the member is deemed Satisfactory evidence.
The member can deny that he did not defect even with all those things you listed.
It happened in Ebonyi state where the whole world knew that they had defected from PDP to APC with enough video evidence.
That is the basis upon which PDP is now challenging the eligibility of the current governor.
He was the speaker of the Assembly then and since he successfully argued in court that he did not defect, PDP are now arguing that at the time he was nominated to run for governor under APC, he was still a member of PDP.
But the member can not deny the letter he wrote. The letter is incontrovertible.

DeepSight:
I said my bad already. That's honesty. Besides, I dont take this place as seriously as I would a court room. Quite often we do light banter here.



I will revert. I would like to quote and cite.
BRB.

Well, you are a honest man. You shouldn't have joined them in always abusing anyone whose views you don't agree with. That is why I hardly post here. I just read and go away because I consider the audience to be too immature.

DeepSight:
I doubt the bold is correct. The defection is too well attested in the public space (and by the repetitions of the Faction of 27 themselves) to be denied by either INEC or anyone else. Besides, have you checked to see if the law actually states that the Speaker must attach letters to his communication with INEC. I haven't checked, to be clear.

Surely he can attach anything else - such as videos of their reception into the APC for instance.

You say you are 20 years at the bar but see what you are writing.
That the speaker can attach any other evidence of defection apart from the letter from the member?
Na waoh.
I think I should just stop at this point.

DeepSight:
Please don't presume I dont know what ex parte orders are. I am a lawyer. However I will admit I did not read the order prior to my initial comment. So my bad on that. Nevertheless this is why I proceeded to couch my subsequent reply in the words I did - note that I said -

"That pronouncement could only be issued with the implicit understanding that the faction of 27 were functus officio."

Please note the word "implicit."

This is also why I then took it one step further, by pointing out that so long as Edison has been recognized as the speaker, and has declared those seats vacant, then the deed is done.

PS: Although interim orders generally have a time limit, in practice once they are made "pending the hearing of the motion on notice" they remain in effect until such a hearing.

You are a lawyer and you are making arguments on a document you have not even read. You ought to know better.
Since you said you are a lawyer, can you answer these questions:
1. Assuming that Edison is the rightful speaker, can he declare the seats of the 27 vacant without receiving and reading in plenary the letters of defection from those members?
2. Can a member lose his seat upon defection if the speaker has not declared the seat vacant or the court has ordered that he so vacates the seat?

DeepSight:
Your line of reasoning seems to be that if a law is consistently breached then it is not the law. That is absurd.
Many Muslims drink alcohol. Therefore Islam does not prohibit the drinking of alcohol. This is what you are effectively saying.

On the contrary, my position is that if a law is constantly breached because of the loopholes contained in that law, then that law ought to be amended to remove those loopholes and make the law easier to implement.
With the current provisions, people will continue to defect and keep their seats. That is clearly against what the law intends but it will continue to happen because of the loopholes in the law.
Unlike you and most people that only seek implementation of the law on the people you don't like, I have been highlighting the loopholes in the law long before the Rivers episode.

[quote author=DeepSight post=127587598]But PDP has also written to INEC.[/quotYes

Yes, they have but the letter is of no consequence by the current provisions of the law.
INEC can not act on the PDP letter.
The only thing that INEC can act on is a letter from the speaker or a valid court judgement.
Edison wrote to INEC too but I am sure that he did not attach any letter from the members. That is the only recognised evidence that they have defected.
Without attaching the letters from the members, his letter to INEC will be just a mere love letter.
It will be like writing to INEC that a member has died without attaching the death certificate.

Kukutente23:
As I've said before, I take your info that the letter was read on the floor.
In all the cases you mentioned, that of Abaribe is understandable since he defected close to election and it's obvious the seat was up for election too.
For the others, the Speaker is acting illegally. It is obvious you have no knowledge of law. The law clearly states that where the word "shall" is used, it confers mandatory on the bearer to carry out the action. There's even a supreme court judgement that backs the use of "shall" up.

To claim that the word "shall" is not automatic shows your ignorance.
Your logic can be stretched to say it is not automatic that the president presents the budget to the house. If he chooses not to, you can go to court.
It can also be stretched to say the president does not need to be sworn in before taking office. If you don't like it, you can go to court.
Heck, the president does not even need to win the majority votes and 25% in 24 states to win an election.
All the examples I gave you, the word "shall" was used in those sections of the constitution. Go and confirm.
So what you're advocating for is simply lawlessness by claiming it is not automatic. That's how illogical your stand is.
The Speaker is expected to be law-abiding since they make laws. But political wimps like you can't tell the difference between law and politics.

If the word "shall" means automatic, can you give me one example where a member lost his seat automatically upon defection. Apart from Abaribe, there has been hundreds of other defections.
The onus is on the speaker to declare the seat vacant. So how is that automatic?
Senator Dave Umahi's seat was only declared vacant by the senate president just last week, after four months of his taking up a ministerial appointment.
People like you just come online to abuse other people who have superior knowledge instead of learning. You can hardly learn that way.
The constitutional provisions on defection is laced with several loopholes and that is why defection has not abated.
Everyone knows the law but the loopholes make it possible for people to defect and get away with it.
Unless the law is amended, we will continue to witness people defecting and still keeping their seats.
The 27 Rivers lawmakers are not the first and will not be the last.