| Taiwo Odukoya | |
|---|---|
| Born | Daniel Taiwo Odukoya 15 June 1956 Kaduna, Northern Region, Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria (now in Kaduna State, Nigeria) |
| Died | 7 August 2023 (aged 67) United States |
| Occupation | Pastor |
| Website | www.tfolc.org |
Biography, wikipedia, age, net worth, and ministry of pastor Taiwo Odukoya
Daniel Taiwo Odukoya (15 June 1956 – 7 August 2023) was a Nigerian pentecostal pastor. 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.
Early life
On June 15, 1956, Taiwo Odukoya was born in Kaduna, Colonial Nigeria, where he also had his upbringing. Before enrolling at the University of Ibadan in 1976, where he earned a degree in petroleum engineering in 1981, he completed his primary and secondary education at the Baptist Primary School, Kigo Road, Kaduna, and St. Paul’s College (now known as Kufena College, Wusasa)
After completing the required one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program, he began working as a petroleum engineer for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in April 1982. He remained there until his voluntary retirement in January 1994, when he was called to the ministry.
Family Life
At the University of Ibadan, Odukoya and Bimbo Williams started a romance that resulted in their marriage in 1984. Three kids were born from the union. Bimbo Odukoya and 102 other passengers on the downed Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 perished on December 10, 2005. Many people had responded positively to Bimbo Odukoya’s messages.On January 5, 2010, five years later, Taiwo Odukoya remarried South African Rosemary Simangele Zulu.Two boys were born from the union.
Odukoya lost his second wife to cancer in November 2021. On November 9, the pastor made an announcement regarding the passing of his wife, stating that the South African had “battled cancer for the better part of two years.”
The Fountain of Life Church
With the mission of “teaching men and women the skill of developing successful relationships and the principles of leadership so they can be all they are designed to be,” Taiwo and Bimbo Odukoya co-founded The Fountain of Life Church in 1992. There are numerous missions for the Church in South Africa, the UK, the US, Switzerland, Kenya, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, the Republic of Benin, and Togo.
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, a water project which provides boreholes at strategic locations for people who have no access to clean and portable water and a skill acquisition and entrepreneurial institute for the less privileged. 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. These outreaches reach out to hundreds of thousands of men and women annually through quarterly rallies, mentorship programs and a vocational center to equip them with technical and practical life skills.
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.
