By Ebele Orakpo

“Come o, are these not the dogs they brought in from the United States a few months ago?” asked Okey, a passenger in the Wuse-bound bus as he sighted some sick-looking dogs being led by some policemen along the road.

“Replied Ahmed; “Of course! Na dem nah!”

“How come they are looking so emaciated and so small compared to the healthy-looking robust dogs that arrived the shores of Nigeria few months ago?” asked Okey, perplexed. “Even dogs from Afghanistan or Somalia will not look like this!”

“Stress! Who does not know the degree of stress both humans and animals go through in Nigeria on daily basis?” questioned Ahmed.

“What stress!?” asked Okey, to which Ahmed replied thus; “Boko Haram, insecurity, hunger, corruption, armed robbery, kidnapping etc.  Are they not enough stress for the inhabitants, especially the security agents?”

“But seriously, these dogs look like they are suffering from kwashiokor. I am sure they are not being fed,” noted Hassan.

“The truth is that they do not get enough rest. They are always out working, looking for security threats like undetonated bombs, explosive devices and bad guys?” commented Ebun.

“Their brothers in other countries do more work and yet look healthy because they are well cared for,” said Okey.

“Wallahi, you needed to have seen these dogs when they entered this country. They were so beautiful. I wished I owned one,” stated Ahmed.

“Abeg shut up. You think say na easy thing to own such dogs? These are not Bingos oo, the type that feed on excreta in the villages. These ones eat balanced diet and take food supplements,” said Abel.

“What breed are they?” asked Ebun.

“Oh, they were Alsatians,” replied Ahmed.

“What do you mean they were Alsatians?” asked everyone laughing.

“Do these things look anything like Alsatians? They were Alsatians before but now, they look more like ‘bend down select’. The alsa has gone from their name, na only tians remain,” joked Mercy.

“Poor things! They are really suffering. So much work with little pay. Why did they import them when they knew they would not be able to adequately care for them?” asked  Hassan.

“Do you think there is no monthly allocation for their feeding? It’s possible that some big shot is misappropriating the money. Monkey dey work, Baboon dey chop. I pity the handlers because one of these days, the dogs will use them for lunch,” said  Abel.

Said Biodun; “No. They are trained dogs from a cultured society.”

”Bros, cultured no dey for the hungry man’s dictionary. A hungry man is an angry man,” said Abel.

”That’s very true. They should be very careful. Like the Igbos will say, ‘giving the monkey a cup of water is not the issue, the issue is getting your cup back,” said Mercy. “It’s easy to acquire these exotic dogs but caring for them costs an arm and a leg.”