Daniel Taiwo Odukoya (15 June 1956 – 7 August 2023) was a Nigerian pentecostal pastor.^[1] He was the co-founder and senior pastor of The Fountain of Life Church, situated in Ilupeju, Lagos, and with a membership strength of over 8,000 people in the 2010s.^[2]

Early life

Taiwo Odukoya was born on 15 June 1956 in the city of Kaduna, Colonial Nigeria, alongside his twin sister Kehinde Olufunmilayo Hassan née Odukoya, where they were also both raised. He had his primary and secondary education at Baptist Primary School, Kigo Road, Kaduna and St. Paul's College (now known as Kufena College, Wusasa) Zaria respectively, before proceeding to the University of Ibadan in 1976 where he obtained a degree in petroleum engineering in 1981. As a petroleum engineer, he started work at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in April 1982 after the compulsory one-year National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) scheme, and served there until his voluntary retirement in January 1994 after his call to the ministry.

The Fountain of Life Church

Taiwo and Bimbo Odukoya (1960–2005) both co-founded The Fountain of Life Church in 1992, with a stated vision "to teach men and women the art of building successful relationships and the principles of leadership so they can be who they are created to be."^[3]

Outreaches

Odukoya proclaimed a firm belief in the role of the church in the community and expresses it through several outreach projects including a hospital, an orphanage, a school for destitute children, a farm,^[4] a water project which provides boreholes at strategic locations for people who have no access to clean and portable water^[5] and a skill acquisition and entrepreneurial institute for the less privileged.^[6] On 19 April 1997, Taiwo Odukoya set up Discovery for Men and Discovery for Women, non-denominational outreaches to men and women designed to help them maximize their potential.^[7] These outreaches reach out to hundreds of thousands of men and women annually through quarterly rallies, mentorship programs^[8] and a vocational center to equip them with technical and practical life skills.^[9]

Controversy

In 2014, nine years after the death of his first wife, Odukoya readdressed the matter of the plane crash that made him a widower. He claimed that pastors are well advised to use private jets: such aircraft better facilitate pastoral ministry and are a safer means of travel than commercial flights.^[10]

Personal life and death

In 1980, Odukoya met then Bimbo Williams at the University of Ibadan and the two struck up a relationship that led to their marriage on November 3, 1984 at the Yaba Baptist Church. The marriage produced three children; now pastors Tolu Odukoya-Ijogun (b. September 7, 1985) and Jimmy Odukoya (b. April 27, 1987), and Dr Tobi Odukoya-Enuha (b. June 11, 1990).

On 10 December 2005, Bimbo Odukoya, along with 102 other people, died on the crashed Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145.^[11] Bimbo Odukoya's messages had been well and widely received by many. On 5 January 2010, five years later, Taiwo Odukoya got married again to Rosemary "Nomthi" Simangele Zulu from South Africa.^[12] His second marriage produced two boys.

In November 2021, Odukoya lost his second wife to cancer. The pastor announced the death of his wife Nomthi on 9 November, saying that the South African "battled cancer for the better part of two years."^[13]

A month after his second wife Nomthi died, Odukoya then lost his biological twin sister Kehinde Olufunmilayo Hassan née Odukoya on 26 December 2021 aged 65, following her difficult and private battle with cancer.^[14]

Taiwo Odukoya himself, eventually died in the United States on 7 August 2023, at the age of 67.^[15] Following Odukoya's death, his two eldest children Jimmy and Tolu, respectively became the Senior Pastor and the Associate Senior Pastor of the Fountain of Life Church, from September 2023.^[16]

References