The announcement of the death of Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, the founder of Fountain of Life Church in Lagos, on Tuesday, threw the Pentecostal congregation in Nigeria and beyond into mourning. According to the church, he died in the United States of America (USA) on Monday at 67.
Though the church didn’t disclose how he died, The Nation reports that the respected preacher had health issues mainly triggered by personal tragedies.
Odukoya was many things to the faith community: a leader, pillar, teacher, and, most importantly, a source of strength.
He was a clergyman who displayed tenacity in the face of adversity. He stayed firm and full of praise in the middle of a tempest of sadness that would have thrown some men into a tailspin. He was also a philanthropist who made a difference in people’s lives through the Fountain of Life Church, which he co-founded with his first wife.
Meanwhile, details have surfaced regarding the events leading to the demise of Pastor Odukoya.
“He really didn’t get over the losses he suffered,” a person close to the family was reported as saying. He tried to be strong, but a man can only take so much.”
Pastor Taiwo, as he was affectionately known, sadly lost his beloved first wife, Pastor Bimbo, in the 2005 Sosoliso plane tragedy. She was 45 years old at the time.
According to the source, Pastor Taiwo and his wife, whom he met as an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan, had a close relationship, and her unexpected death devastated him.
“Pastor was more devastated by what people said after Pastor Bimbo died than what actually happened. Many people said nasty things that saddened his heart. The savagery of the comments touched him. He had no choice and decided to move on despite the heartbreak. It took a lot of talking for him to decide to remarry,” the source added.
On November 9, 2021, the pastor suffered another heartbreaking loss when his second wife, Pastor Nomthi, a South African, died of cancer.
Unfortunately, two months after the loss of his second wife, Pastor Odukoya also lost his twin sister.
“If Pastor Bimbo’s death was shattering, Pastor Nomthi’s demise was a technical knock-out. It knocked Pastor down and out. He was inconsolable. He was very bothered about what people would say. It left him totally lifeless. There was nothing we could tell him. It took something deep out of him and some of us became afraid for him.” the source said.
Odukoya’s Background
Odukoya was born a twin on June 15, 1956. He grew up in Kaduna with nine siblings.
He attended Baptist Primary School in Kigo Road, Kaduna, before moving on to St. Paul’s College (now known as Kufena College, Wusasa) in Zaria, Nigeria.
He enrolled in the University of Ibadan (UI) in 1976 and graduated with a degree in petroleum engineering in 1981.
Odukoya began working for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) directly after college until he answered God’s call to become a full-time gospel minister 12 years later.
Odukoya founded Fountain of Life Church (FOL) in 1992 with his wife Bimbo, before he resigned from NNPC. During their time at UI, he met and fell in love with Bimbo. The passion was fueled by a love for God’s messages and culminated in marriage.
As co-pastors, the couple started the church from the ground up.
Mike Okonkwo, presiding bishop of the Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM) and Odukoya’s spiritual father, described how the Odukoyas stoked their “fire for Jesus Christ” in the beginning.
“My mind goes back to those years in Akoka, and I can’t believe you were in your 20s at that time. I remember in those days that Pastor Bimbo would come with a baby’s cot and would be driving mosquitoes away from the baby’s cot at night,” Okonkwo told Guardian Nigeria in an interview.
“They would stay very late in the night while holding meetings. They would ensure that the university community received the gospel of God. They raised money to print a magazine, and it started spreading around the university community. They were on fire for Jesus Christ.”
The Odukoyas soon became the energetic outlet of God’s gospel with leverage on the trendiest technology of the time.
The couple became renowned televangelists, with Bimbo winning more souls with her famous ‘Single & Married’ TV show.
Toluwani, the first child of the union, narrated how his father supported Bimbo’s drive to impact lives through TV and added that he never felt threatened by his wife’s popularity.
“People kept wondering who the pastor of the church was when my mother was alive,” she told Punch in an interview.
“Whenever I told them it was my father, they argued with me. My mother became more popular because she was on television, but people didn’t know that it was my father’s idea. Everything she did, my father made her do it. If you had the opportunity to see her on television, she gave credit to my father.”
Odukoya attained fame with his refined gospel preaching style. His messages, based on leadership development and building successful relationships and enterprises, earned him a wide following worldwide.
He was an accomplished author with over 100 books and praying manuals. Titles like Unleash Your God-given Potential, Created for Blessings, Limitless, Home Affairs, The Proof, Get All You Want, The Portrait of a Champion, 120 Days of Victory, 121 Days of Blessings, 125 Days of Favour,
Taiwo’s union with Bimbo produced three children, including Jimmy — the star of Netflix’s ‘Woman King’ movie.
“My father and mother were like ‘bread and butter’. I am sure he cherished all the time spent with her. They understood each other, and they were really in love. My father’s love for my mother made him push her to achieve great things,” Toluwani said.
But tragedy struck in the 21st year of the marriage.
On December 10, 2005, Bimbo was on a two-part ministration scheduled for Abuja and Port Harcourt. After completing the Abuja event, Bimbo called Odukoya as she was about to board the flight bound for Port Harcourt. As is customary in their marriage, he hoped to hear from her again when she landed.
Unfortunately, the plane Bimbo boarded was the Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 and crashed, killing all passengers but two.
“Everything happened so quickly; I tried all I could to book the next flight to Port Harcourt but was dissuaded by the people around, who were concerned about my ability to make the trip in my state of mind,” Odukoya reminisced about the period in his book titled ‘Gracious Legacy —The life and times of Bimbo Olukoya’.
“Her time of death was so detailed to be precisely 6 hours after the crash. It was devastating to learn she was alive for 6 hours, possibly fighting for her life. I could not make it on time to reach her, though she must have been expecting my arrival.”
Toluwani claimed that the period broke her father and caused him to expediently age. Odukoya wore the ring from his marriage to Bimbo as memorabilia of their love until a “medical check-up” took it off him six years later.
“That period wasn’t easy for him. Suddenly, my father was becoming an old man. When I returned from the US, he was looking like a 70-year-old man. I was a 300-level student at an American university when my mother died. On getting home, I saw him seated on the floor in his room, looking aged. He couldn’t talk well; he was obviously broken. But the hurt and pain didn’t make him despise who God was. I think his hope in Christ pulled him out of the dark period. For almost five years, he slept on the floor as he couldn’t sleep on the bed without his wife,” she said.
“He still wore his wedding ring for almost six years after my mother’s death. It was when he went to the US for a check-up that his doctors, who were friends with him and my mother, looked for a way to take off the ring. They asked him to remove all his jewellery for the check-up, and they made sure he didn’t wear the ring back.”
Losing his second wife
After the death of Bimbo, Odukoya did not remarry until five years later.
He met Nomthi, a South African, at the Triumphant Church International, London.
“After the conference, my pastor told me someone was interested in me. I declined because I was seeing someone then. The relationship eventually did not work out, and I informed my pastor but not immediately,” Nomthi narrated in 2015 on Ynaija.
“To cut the long story short, Pastor Taiwo had a stopover in London and that was the first time we met. Before then, my pastor had given him my telephone number and he had called me. When he proposed to me, I did not like the idea of getting married to a widower. I took my time, prayed about it, and I became convinced it was what God wanted for me. Being married to him is amazing, and it has brought out potential I never knew I had. I don’t have to pray and say Lord help my husband go to church today. There is no struggle.”
The union produced two sons. Nomthi’s marriage catapulted her into the spotlight. She became a well-known novelist and anti-bullying activist.
Then tragedy struck once more. Nomthi died on November 9, 2021. Odukoya disclosed in her announcement that Nomthi “battled cancer for the better part of two years.”
“She stood on the word of God, and she fought,” he wrote on his Instagram page.
“She gave me 11 beautiful years of marriage and two wonderful boys, whom I know will be significant in life. I loved her with all my heart, but who am I to fight the will of God?
“The truth is, at one point in our lives, we all will have to say goodbye. So, for now, till we meet again in glory, Goodbye, Nomthi.”
Reinforced faith despite all
Odukoya was back in the pulpit the following Sunday, preaching God’s lessons after Nomthi died on Tuesday.
Odukoya conducted a worship session at his Lagos church, prompting his son, Jimmy, to laud his father on his Instagram page.
Jimmy commended his father for fighting what “would break a lesser man”, adding that “Na man you be.”
Seven weeks later, Odukoya also lost Kehinde Hassan, his twin sister.
Describing her father’s passion for God, Toluwani said Odukoya understood that “God gives and takes, and we shouldn’t lose the giver and hold on to the gift because the giver will always give us gifts”.
“My father is a good Christian. As a human being, he has the right to question God for his wife’s death, but somehow, he understands God and His works,” she said.
“Despite his wife’s death, it didn’t shake his faith in God, and that also challenges the children. My mother died on December 10, and I fell seriously ill during that period, but my dad left me for the church. He called my aunt to stay with me, saying the church needed him. The church was really in disarray during that period too. He rates God higher than any other thing. Since God gives and takes, we shouldn’t lose the giver and hold on to the gift because the giver will always give us gifts.”
Odukoya’s Philanthropic Outreach
Odukoya’s charity acts, in addition to his gospel teachings, touched lives and impacted communities. He firmly believes in the church’s role in the socioeconomic life of nations, and his ideals are reflected in the Fountain of Life Church’s social projects.
The church operates a hospital, an orphanage, a poor school, and a vocational farm. The Grace Springs Rehabilitation Home effort pulled young children off the streets, rehabilitated them, and helped them reunite with their families and society. Since 2004, the church claims the campaign has reached nearly 24,000 people.
The university also developed the Education Support Project (ESP) to improve the education standards in public schools nearby. The program funded school infrastructure, teacher training, and scholarships for deserving pupils.
