When Lawmakers Become Courtiers: The Rivers Assembly’s Shameful Gift To Wike -By Isaac Asabor

There are moments in public life when an action is so tone-deaf, so grotesquely misplaced, that it becomes a metaphor for everything that is wrong with governance. The decision by members of the Rivers State House of Assembly to gift Nyesom Wike a brand-new 2025 Toyota Camry is one of such moments. It is not just an insult to common sense; it is a public declaration that the lawmakers either do not understand their duty or have chosen to abandon it altogether.

Here is the setting: a state battling decaying hospitals, overcrowded classrooms, unpaid workers, youth unemployment, and communities that barely feel the presence of government. In that same state, lawmakers gather to buy a luxury car for a man who openly admits he has “plenty already,” including a Rolls-Royce. And as if that were not embarrassing enough, they apologise that the gift is “small” and promise to do better next year by asking their wives to save more money.

At this point, one must ask the most basic question: who told these lawmakers that Wike needs an extra car?

This was not charity. It was not generosity. It was not even politics in the noble sense. It was sycophancy, raw and unfiltered. The Speaker himself said it clearly: “We know that you have plenty already but just add this one to the ones you already have.” That single sentence should haunt the conscience of every Rivers citizen. It confirms that the lawmakers were fully aware of the absurdity of their action and went ahead anyway.

What exactly were they thinking? If they were thinking at all, it was not about hospitals lacking equipment, schools with leaking roofs, or primary healthcare centres without drugs. It was not about teachers buying chalk from their salaries or patients paying out of pocket for services that should be free. It was certainly not about governance. Their thinking, if one can call it that, was about pleasing a powerful political godfather.

The Rivers State House of Assembly is not a family compound. Its members are not Wike’s children, despite the Speaker’s embarrassing appeal for him to “take them as his children.” They are elected representatives of the people, paid with public funds, entrusted with lawmaking, oversight, and accountability. When lawmakers reduce themselves to dependents begging for validation, governance collapses.

Let us be clear: this was not Wike’s money. This was not private affection. These are public officials, whose income and influence come directly from the people. Whether the money for the car came from allowances, pooled personal funds, or “wives’ savings” it is irrelevant. Once public office holders engage in collective gifting to a powerful figure, it raises unavoidable questions about motive, influence, and priorities.

The gift did not happen in isolation. It sits comfortably within a pattern of conduct that began long before the Camry keys were presented. From the moment this group of lawmakers attempted to impeach Governor Siminalayi Fubara under questionable circumstances, it became clear that their loyalty was not to the state but to a political centre of gravity outside it. Every action since then has reinforced that conclusion.

What we are seeing is not legislation but submission. In sane climes, lawmakers compete to attract projects to their constituencies, sponsor bills that improve lives, and hold the executive accountable. In Rivers State, lawmakers compete to outdo one another in displays of loyalty to one man who does not lack power, influence, or material comfort. That inversion of values is deadly for democracy.

Even more disturbing is the casualness with which they dismissed the suffering around them. Promising a “better gift” in 2026 while hospitals beg for funding is not just ignorance; it is cruelty. Asking spouses to save more money to impress a minister while schools operate without desks shows a complete detachment from reality.

One wonders whether these lawmakers understand what governance actually means. Do they know that public office is not a fan club? Do they realize that leadership is not measured by how lavishly one flatters power but by how effectively one serves the powerless? Or have they mistaken politics for a loyalty contest where survival depends on pleasing a benefactor?

The tragedy is not that Wike received another car. The tragedy is that elected lawmakers saw nothing wrong with giving it to him. That lack of self-awareness is far more dangerous than the gift itself.

From the impeachment drama to this embarrassing spectacle, the actions of the Rivers State House of Assembly have amounted to little more than political theatre, empty of substance and hostile to good governance. They have shown energy where none was needed and silence where courage was required. They have been bold in defending power and timid in defending the people.

In the end, this is not about Wike. A man with a fleet of cars can accept or reject gifts as he pleases. This is about lawmakers who have forgotten why they were elected. It is about representatives who think their relevance lies in what they can offer a powerful individual rather than what they can deliver to a suffering state.

History will not remember the Camry. It will remember the failure of those who bought it.