I came across a video online where a content creator interviewed some guys on the street about their knowledge of bitcoin/cryptocurrency and I was shocked by their rate of ignorance.
I analyzed the age range of those who said they have no idea of Bitcoin and found out that they are mostly in their early 40s and above.
This got me pondering on so many things and then I got to realize why a lot hasn't changed in our country even after we have a succession of leaders regularly
Because of the difference in what is prevalent at every phase of life, you can't expect a leader who, during his youthful age saw youths concentrating much on farming and military activity to come up with ideas that are centered on building strong tech guru or even legalize any bitcoin related stuff that he knows little to nothing about.
I would like to begin by comparing the age of those you sampled by the age of the Bitcoin technology itself. You said most of those you sampled are above their 40s and they had little or no idea whatsoever on the Bitcoin technology.
Now, let's assume average age of those you sampled was 45. Whereas the year in which Bitcoin was created by Satoshi is 2009. When you count from then till now, you will have approximately 14 years which means, Bitcoin is 14 years old. Okay, subtract the age of Bitcoin from the age of 45 and you will have 31 years. Give or take, it probably took another 2 years or more before Nigerians began to hear about the technology. And when you add that 2 years to the 31, you will have 33 years. Invariably, those you sampled where around 33 years of age when the idea of Bitcoin landed Nigeria fully.
Considering the peculiarity of life in Nigeria, at that age, you must have add family you take care of with a little paying job or no job at all. What most Nigerians at that age does is to go out of their comfort zone in search of an ends meet. It is also a norm here that at that age, you may be disinterested with any technology that comes out then and tag it as 'intangible'. Hence, the reason why most of them didn't know what Bitcoin is all about.
If you observe well, you will notice that most lecturers, deans, and HODs of most Nigeria universities are old folks who don't even know much about the changes in the tech sectors and can't effect reasonable managerial decisions that will help the schooling curriculum meet up with the demands and realities of the moment.
It's a sad situation but I think it brings us back to the fact that we need more youth involved in our politics and well-represented in the House of Assembly and Senate if we are ready to make reasonable growth in another sector of our country.
In tandem with what I mentioned earlier as a factor for why people of that age bracket won't pay attention to such new technology, we also have issue of lack of trust and reservation to accepting new technology. When you come down to the young people at their late 20s and 30s you will discover that even at that age, they know little about Bitcoin and don't really have much interest in it. It is as a result of their reservation to new technology.
It is not far fetched since the lecturers might have had the knowledge of the Bitcoin but will still develope disinterest in it because they believe life cannot be made that easy and simple things fade in time. Truth of the matter is, Bitcoin is completely different and a strong discovery that have come to stay.
As for our representatives, we already have good number of youths representatives but it also requires our perpetual advocacy on the cryptocurrencies as well as proposal to support the young people holding the mantle of leadership since we all, as young people, cannot be leaders at a time.