As is a tale, so is a life: Not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
Pastor Daniel Taiwo Odukoya was born on June 15, 1956 in Kaduna, Northern region, Nigeria. He was a senior pastor from Nigeria who served as the head of The Fountain of Life Church in Ilupeju, Lagos.
The Fountain of Life Church was established in 1992 by Taiwo and Bimbo Odukoya (1960-2005), who both shared the mission of “teaching men and women the art of building successful relationships and the principles of leadership so they can be who they are created to be.”
In addition to a hospital, an orphanage, a school for needy children, a farm, a water project that installs boreholes in key locations for people without access to clean, portable water, and a skill-building and entrepreneurial institute for the underprivileged, Odukoya declared a strong belief in the role of the church in the community. He established Discovery for Men and Discovery for Women on April 19, 1997. These non-denominational outreach programmes for men and women are meant to help individuals attain their full potential. These outreach programmes provide technical and real-world life skills to hundreds of thousands of men and women each year through quarterly rallies, mentorship programmes, and a vocational centre.
Before going to the University of Ibadan in 1976, where he earned a degree in petroleum engineering in 1981, he attended Baptist Primary School, Kigo Road, Kaduna, and St. Paul’s College (now known as Kufena College, Wusasa), both in Zaria. He began working as a petroleum engineer for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in April 1982 after completing the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) program’s one-year requirement. He remained there until his voluntary retirement in January 1994, when he was called to the ministry.
Odukoya and Bimbo Williams met at the University of Ibadan in 1980. In 1984, their relationship blosomed into a marriage. The duo were blessed with three children, however, Bimbo Odukoya died aboard the wrecked Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 on December 10, 2005, along with 102 other passengers. Five years later, on 5 January 2010, Taiwo Odukoya remarried South African Rosemary Simangele Zulu. And their union was blessed with two boys.
Sadly, Odukoya’s second wife died of cancer in November 2021. On November 9, the pastor announced the passing of his wife, revealing that the South African had “battled cancer for the better part of two years.”
On August 7, 2023, Taiwo Odukoya, who was 67 years old at the time, also passed away in the United States.
We celebrate the life and times of this embodiment of love, compassion, and selflessness and also pray for comfort for the family he left behind.
Your life was a blessing, and your memory, a treasure. You are loved beyond words and will be missed beyond measure.
