Renowned actor turned clergyman, Jimmy Odukoya has opened up about his journey of wrestling with faith and grief after the sudden and heartbreaking loss of his mother, Pastor Bimbo Odukoya.
During a conversation on the Truth Table podcast, hosted by his sister, Pastor Tolu Odukoya, Pastor Jimmy Odukoya reflected on the difference between his mother’s sudden death and his father’s, describing his mother’s passing as the realization of his greatest fear.
At a crossroads in his faith, he considered abandoning his beliefs but ultimately decided to stay and grieve. He felt like a battered soldier, broken and lifeless, until he found strength in a message from God, encouraging him to rise, reminding him that the worst had already happened and he had nothing left to fear. He said
“The difference between when mum died and when dad died was that with mum it was very sudden and no one saw it coming. I think that my biggest fear in life at the time was losing a member of my family and mum was the most important woman in my life.”
“When it happened, I felt like I was at a crossroads with God and I had two choices. It was either the middle finger to God and saying, ‘You know what? I’m done. This is not what you promised, this isn’t what you said. I’m leaving, I’m not doing this anymore. Where has this gotten us? And the other option was to stay there and just cry.”
“I thought to myself that if I take the other option where I walk away, I’m still going to come back eventually so why waste my time walking away? Let me just stay here and cry”.
“It was one of my biggest fears at the time and you know scenes in movies where you see soldiers in war-battered and broken; his shield is somewhere and he’s pretty much lifeless. I felt battered and broken at that time and I remember God saying, ‘Get up, soldier. Don’t you realise that you’re fearless now? The worst has happened so what can the devil use to threaten or scare you anymore?”.
Glamsquad recalls that Pastor Bimbo Odukoya died in the Sosoliso plane crash tragedy that occurred on 10th December 2005. Sixteen years later, Pastor Jimmy lost his stepmother, Nomthi Rosemary Odukoya after she battled cancer for two years.
Sadly, Pastor Jimmy’s father, Pastor Taiwo Odukoya passed away on 4th August 2023. He passed away as a broken-hearted man after losing two wives and a twin sister.