Adieu, Pastor Taiwo Odukoya | The Guardian Nigeria News

“Life comes from the earth and life returns to the earth.” – Zhuangzi. 

Sir, humans are fallible beings. Humans are incapable of control over their lives and destinies. Humans cannot change their future, but resilient and determined humans can temporarily alter and administer their fate if they understand life’s nuances.

Sadly, Pastor Taiwo Odukoya’s death is painful to some of us who have been following the repeated personal agony and mental exhaustion of the brilliant and humble but fallible man.

Pastor Odukoya lost three important life partners: his first wife—Pastor Bimbo, in 2005; he remarried and lost his second wife; and again, tragically, he lost his twin sister. All these losses within a spate of a decade. “For someone who has lost two important women in his life, it was tough to take the death of someone with whom he shared his womb and childhood.”  Life is indeed a mysterious journey that is full of twists and turns that often leave us baffled and perplexed. It is a journey that defies human comprehension, yet we continue to navigate it with hope and resilience.

At times, it may seem like we are lost in the midst of the unknown. Still, during these moments, we must remember to have faith in ourselves and the journey ahead, for it is through the unknown that we discover new paths and opportunities that can lead us to understand ourselves and the world around us better.

Pastor Odukoya was a man who had been through painful and psychological trauma after the initial death of his amiable and charismatic wife, Bimbo Odukoya. Pastors Bimbo and Taiwo Odukoya were existential undetached partners before death snatched her from him in 2005.

Meanwhile, the two inspirational speakers and pastors had inspired this writer and many of their congregations and audiences when they were alive. As I like to posit: not all wounds bleed, and not all bleeding wounds are not unstoppable. The fact that Pastor Odukoya looked “supreme” to his numerous followers did not mean he could not suffer ordinarily from ordinary and fallible human infirmities.

When his Kehinde died recently, it was seemingly believed that something had eventually died in Pastor Odukoya. The man showed strength of character and lived for two years after his last witnessed tragedy.

Existentially, to sociopaths around us, be aware that it is antithetical to our norms and mores to speak foul of the decency inherent in the dead, and also runs contrarily against the natural order for anyone to mock the dead when death is the ultimate and supreme price we are all going to pay as debt.

As the demise, Pastor Taiwo Odukoya meets his departed and loved partners in the celestial world—to part no more, may their gentle souls rest in perfect peace.

Yahaya Balogun wrote this piece from Arizona, the United States of America.