“Yes it is true. I trekked from Lagos to Umuaka” Ben Helper.
3 min read
The name Mr Benjamin Ukwuoma Nnaka may not ring a bell around you because of some certain reasons. The man behind this “mask” of a name is someone many people know in and outside Imo State properly. To decode or unmask this man, just try to shorten the first name to Ben, remove the middle name and the surname and add Helper. What you will get is simply, Ben Helper.
Mr Ben Helper who is one of the grand children of the famous Nnaka family from Achara in Umuaka town as early as 1979 stood up and captured the world of divinity and spiritualism. When Umuaka Times visited this great Akalite who had taken time to master the act of using spiritual tools to solve many problems for people, he told the newspaper that the name “Helper” is not ordinary but highly divine. From what he told Umuaka Times, people gave him the name because of his unshakable spiritual assistance to people he had come across some decades ago. “In 1979, I started to heal people at St Michael’s Collage Osuobodo Oguta. I was treating diseases, mental illnesses and solving many other spiritual problems for people as at that time, especially students.”
This act or gift of healing, earned the then teenager the name “Helper” which has completely overshadowed his real name Benjamin Ukwuoma Nnaka. When Umuaka Times asked him to explain how the whole spiritual journey started for him, he looked at the reporter and sharply responded saying, “The spirit of healing has its origin with cultural dependency. You see things and hear things and the force behind it is Eze Nwanyi or Agwuisi according to our culture.”
From what Umuaka Times gathered from him, he was “missing” for 27 days and his people were looking for him all over Lagos, Imo, Anambra and more until he was found at last. During this 27 day period, Ben Helper told the Umuaka Timers reporter who visited him that the Eze Nwanyi was educating him and showing him the roots, plants and more that have divine healing powers. This was similar to what happened to the late Native Doctor Ihesie, who over three decades ago, told IBC Radio that during his learning process, he “missed” for 7 years and his parents and others were busy looking for him. “Is there any form of similarity between Ben Helper and Ihesie?” The reporter asked?
According to Ben Helper, “The force that possessed and metamorphosed Ihesie was the same force that possessed and metamorphosed me. Dr Ihesie and I had deep respect for each other.”
Now, the time for the big question. This question was indeed what brought the reporter to the home of Mr Helper. “Sir, is it true that you trekked from Lagos to Umuaka?” Ben helper cleared his voice, adjusted himself on the chair, paused a while gazing on the floor and said. “Yes. I trekked from Lagos to Umuaka and it took me 27 days.”
Asked why he decided to punish himself to such an unimaginable degree of pain and hardship, he said that it was not ordinary and he never even knew himself or realized what he was doing throughout the period of this Long Walk to Freedom. “I never knew what I was doing but I had a spiritual guidance that propelled me. The spiritual journey from Lagos to Umuaka took me 27 days to arrive home. When I got to Riverside Primary School area, some people saw me and identified me and went to inform my family that they had seen me. From there they came and took me home. It was at Riverside area, that I realized myself and came back to real human form.”
Native Dr Ben Helper who told Umuaka Times that he never regretted his spiritual exploits claimed that he still has the power in him till date. For some time now, Ben Helper has stopped the practice of spiritual healing, facing other businesses of life. He still confirmed to Umuaka Times that the power in and within him still remains unshakable because “it is inbuilt.”
