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Correcting the Misrecording of Major Albert Okonkwo’s Name as “Nwazu”

 Correcting the Misrecording of Major Albert Okonkwo’s Name as “Nwazu”



By Emeka Esogbue


Many secondary and online sources, including Wikipedia and several foreign war reports from 1967–1970, have incorrectly recorded Major Albert Okonkwo’s middle name as “Nwazu.” However, verified family accounts, local Ibusa oral sources, and post-war references confirm that his correct name is Albert Onweazu Okonkwo.


His middle name, Onweazu, is a popular masculine Ibusa name rooted in Anioma cultural lexicon. Etymologically, it denotes “one who eventually had siblings after his birth.” The variant “Nwazu,” which does not exist in the Anioma naming system, likely originated from early Western newspaper misprints and subsequent transcription errors that were later replicated in retellings of the Nigerian Civil War.


During the Midwest campaign of 1967, Okonkwo’s name appeared in international wire dispatches filed by correspondents unfamiliar with Anioma names. It is believed that they phonetically rendered “Onweazu” as “Nwazu.” Since then, neither Ibusa nor wider Anioma researchers made concerted efforts to correct the error, allowing the inaccurate variant which is meaningless in Anioma culture to persist for decades.


The unfamiliarity of Anioma nomenclature among both foreign and local Nigerian journalists, as well as the repeated citation of erroneous reports in derivative sources such as Wikipedia, further entrenched the misspelling.


Be that as it may, his name remains unequivocally “Onweazu,” the name he proudly bore and signed in all his personal and official documents. Major (Dr.) Albert Onweazu Okonkwo served as the Military Administrator of the Midwestern Region, a position imposed by Biafran forces from August to September 1967, until the region was recaptured by federal troops under Colonel Murtala Mohammed.


Further Reading


Esogbue, E. (2025). From Benin to History: A Post-War Story of Nigeria’s Civil War Figure, Major (Dr.) Albert Onweazu Okonkwo.


In due course, Pen Master will unveil the family photographs of Major (Dr.) Albert Onweazu Okonkwo

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