Taiwo Odukoya was a Nigerian Christian minister best known as the co-founder and senior pastor of The Fountain of Life Church in Ilupeju, Lagos. His public life brought together an engineering career, decades of pastoral leadership and a family closely associated with his ministry.

He helped build the church into an established Pentecostal congregation, with teaching centred on faith, purpose, relationships and personal responsibility. Although many people also know him as Jimmy Odukoya’s father, his own ministry developed over more than three decades.

Early life and education

Odukoya was born on June 15, 1956, in Kaduna, northern Nigeria. He grew up there and attended St. Paul’s College, Wusasa, Zaria, before continuing his education at the University of Ibadan.

He studied petroleum engineering and graduated in 1981. His academic training led him into Nigeria’s oil industry, giving him a professional career before church leadership became his principal occupation.

Odukoya worked as a petroleum engineer with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. His move from engineering into full-time ministry became a defining part of his biography, linking his early working life with the religious vocation for which he became widely known.

Building The Fountain of Life Church

In 1992, Odukoya and his first wife, Bimbo, founded The Fountain of Life Church in Lagos. They became its central pastoral figures, with Taiwo serving as senior pastor and Bimbo developing a prominent teaching ministry of her own.

The church’s message placed particular emphasis on helping people understand their purpose and apply Christian beliefs to everyday life. Alongside worship and biblical teaching, relationships, marriage and leadership became recognisable parts of its public identity.

Odukoya’s work extended beyond preaching at regular services. Through conferences, books and ministry programmes, he addressed personal development, family responsibilities and the role of faith in professional and community life.

Under his leadership, The Fountain of Life Church developed ministries serving different groups within its congregation. His standing rested largely on his long association with the church and the pastoral community built around it.

Marriage, children and personal loss

Odukoya married Bimbo in 1984, and they had three children. Their son Jimmy later became known as an actor and Christian minister. Bimbo was herself a widely recognised pastor, particularly for her teaching on relationships through the programme Single and Married.

In December 2005, Bimbo died following the Sosoliso Airlines crash in Port Harcourt. Her death was a major loss for the family and the church they had founded together. Taiwo continued leading the congregation after her death.

In 2010, he married South African pastor Rosemary Simangele Odukoya, widely known as Nomthi. They had two sons, bringing his total number of children to five. Nomthi also participated in the church’s ministry.

She died in November 2021 after living with cancer. The deaths of both wives became a significant part of Odukoya’s personal story, alongside his continuing responsibilities as a father and pastor.

Death and ministry legacy

Odukoya died on August 7, 2023, in the United States, aged 67. His death closed a long period of leadership at The Fountain of Life Church. Jimmy Odukoya subsequently became the church’s senior pastor.

His enduring legacy is most clearly associated with the institution he co-founded and the people he taught and mentored. His biography also reflects the close connection between family and ministry that characterised his public life, from his partnership with Bimbo to the next generation’s involvement in church leadership.

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