…Hashim says discovering his Hausa roots helped him understand the different cultures that shaped his identity
Presidential candidate of the Accord Party, Dr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has revealed a closely guarded family secret that kept his Hausa and royal identity hidden from him for almost three decades.
Hashim, a grandson of the 40th Seriki of Yauri, said his late father, Alhaji Hashim Abdullahi Yauri, deliberately concealed his royal background when he was a child after receiving a warning from an Islamic cleric about possible dangers within the royal family.
According to Hashim, the cleric advised his father not to expose the boy’s identity prematurely. Faced with the warning, his father chose what he believed was the safest option — keeping his son’s heritage secret.
“He chose protection over inheritance,” Hashim said.
That decision would shape much of Hashim’s early life.
He was relocated and raised in the Borgu Emirate under a different identity, growing up largely within a Yoruba cultural environment and away from the Hausa traditions, royal connections and family history associated with his paternal lineage.
Although he was named Abdulmalik at birth, Hashim said he spent much of his childhood unaware of the circumstances surrounding his identity.
For about 27 years, he lived without knowing the full story of his paternal heritage.
The extraordinary account is contained in Chapter 13 of his forthcoming autobiography, Sunrise at Midnight, which is scheduled for publication soon. The chapter chronicles his childhood, his father’s decision to conceal his identity and the eventual discovery of the family heritage that had been kept from him.
Hashim has previously spoken about his unusual upbringing. In an interview with THISDAY, he disclosed that he was born in Yelwa, Yauri, in 1969, while his father was a young police officer.
He later grew up with the family of his stepfather, Julius Bamidele Olawepo, in a setting that shaped the Yoruba cultural identity with which he became familiar.
Hashim also used the account to pay tribute to his late father, whom he described as a distinguished police officer who rose through the ranks to become a Police Commissioner and later Commandant of the Police College, Kaduna.
Known popularly as “Zaki” — the Lion, Alhaji Hashim Abdullahi Yauri, according to his son, earned the nickname because of his courage, discipline, strength and commanding personality.
Hashim and his siblings recently marked the 30th anniversary of their father’s passing, commemorating his life through advertisements in major Nigerian newspapers.
For Hashim, however, the story of his father is inseparable from the story of his own identity.
The same man who chose to hide his son’s royal lineage was, in Hashim’s account, a formidable public servant whose career and reputation stretched across Northern Nigeria.
The family history reaches even further back to Hashim’s grandfather, Seriki Abdullahi Jibril, popularly known as Maiy Yauri.
Hashim described his grandfather as one of the prominent traditional rulers of Northern Nigeria of his era and part of a generation of educated Northern royals who combined traditional authority with education, administration and commerce.
According to Hashim, Seriki Jibril, the 40th ruler of Yauri, was particularly distinguished by his knowledge of finance and trade, financial prudence, transparency and commitment to education.
He also described his grandfather as a prominent Hausa royal who received the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) during the colonial period.
Hashim further recalled that British records portrayed Seriki Jibril as an unusually independent traditional ruler who, during the Second World War, exercised a degree of administrative autonomy that set him apart from some of his contemporaries.
But for Hashim, the significance of the story extends beyond royal titles and family lineage.
At its heart, he said, it is about a father who chose secrecy as a means of protecting his son, a child who grew up between different cultural influences without knowing the complete story of his origins, and a family history that eventually resurfaced decades later.
“For 27 years, I lived without knowing the full story of who I was,” Hashim said.
He said discovering his Hausa and Yauri heritage did not diminish the Yoruba cultural environment in which he was raised.
Instead, Hashim said the discovery gave him a deeper appreciation of the different cultural and historical strands that had contributed to his identity.
His story, therefore, is not simply about a hidden royal lineage. It is also a reflection on family, sacrifice, identity and heritage and on how parts of a person’s history can remain concealed for years before eventually finding their way back into their life
