More than 300 persons thronged the Head Office of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) in Abuja, seeking employment in the Lake Chad Agricultural Research Institute, Maiduguri.

Some of the applicants who spoke with newsmen last Tuesday blamed the high unemployment rate in the country on corruption.

They alleged that the few available job opportunities in the country were reserved for the “privileged few’’ as ordinary citizens hardly benefitted.

Mr Vathia Zakawa, a graduate of Federal University of Technology, Yola, now Modibo Adama University of Technology, said that the eradication of corruption would reduce the level of unemployment in the country.

“Let the government get rid of corruption and unemployment will be reduced; they are trying but they have to do more.

“Jobs in this country are only for those with high level connections; we were told as growing up kids that we were the leaders of tomorrow.

“We are growing old already and we are not yet employed let alone becoming leaders,’’ he lamented.

Mr Iliya Paul, a graduate of the University of Maidugiri, who has been job hunting since 2010, noted that some employed people were also after the limited available jobs, making it difficult for fresh graduates to be recruited.

“People are looking for greener pastures, they prefer better jobs to what they have and they won’t resign to make space for others.

“If government checkmates that, the unemployment figure will reduce.”

Paul stressed the need to make funds available to youths to encourage self-employment in the country.

More pathethic was the case of Mr Mustapha Abadam, a graduate of Mammud Polytechnic, Maiduguri, who said that he had spent 20 years searching for a job.

He said within this period, he had occupied himself with political activities, among others to survive.

“Unemployment is as a result of bad planning on the part of our leaders; they need to wake up.

“Government should also harmonise the salaries of public workers in the country so that employed people would stop blocking the opportunities for the unemployed,” he said.