Emeka Esogbue

 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...