Nigerian pastor preaches at man’s funeral despite losing wife same day

A popular Nigeria pastor, Ituah Ighodalo, still honoured an invitation to preach at the funeral of 25-year-old Ayodeji Modupe Johnson on Sunday June 14, some hours after receiving the shocking news of the death of his wife, Ibidunni Ajayi Ighodalo.

Ibidunni, a former beauty queen, passed away in the early hours of Sunday Port Harcourt, Rivers State, South South Nigeria, where she had gone on working visit.

She is believed to have died of cardiac arrest in her hotel room in the oil city.

She had reportedly travelled to Rivers State and the nearby Bayelsa State where he firm, ELIZABETH R is helping to build isolation centres for COVID-19 patients but died barely a month to her 40^th birthday.

Ibidunni, who was at some point Miss Lux, a popular soap, during her lifetime gave hope to many marriages across the world through her Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation (IIF).

Having waited for 11 years to have a biological child and after going through 11 Invitro-Fertilisation (IVF), Ibidunni decided to encourage those having similar affliction with a view to giving them hope.

The love for children made Ibidunni to adopt some kids.

Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, in a condolence message to Ighodalo, said he shared the pain and sorrow of his family and prayed that God should comfort the pastor and his entire family over the incident.

Buhari, in the message signed by his media aide, Femi Adesina, acknowledged that Ighodalo was one of those clerics that faithfully prays for the nation and government.

He recounted that Ighodalo sent a personal letter to him when his chief of staff, Abba Kyari, died in April.

Please, accept my condolence. May God give you the fortitude to bear the loss, and strengthen you at this trying time,” Buhari said.

Also, Godwin Obaseki, Governor of Edo State, Ighodalo’s home state, in a condolence message said, “Ibidunni was one of the finest among us; she was full of life and gave herself to causes that edified life and living.

“In her personal capacity and through the Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation, she impacted society, helping to bring joy and happiness to peoples’ lives.”

In her condolence message, a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, said, “Life! Ibidun Ighodalo? Just gone….like a candle in the wind. Too much of a heart-breaking news. May God comfort our very dear Pastor Ituah and rest of family in the way that only He can in Jesus name.”

Ighodalo preaches at funeral

But Pastor Ighodalo, senior pastor of Trinity House, braced all odds to preach at Johnson’s funeral during which he described life as full of mystery.

Church Times Nigeria reports that the clergyman, whose exhortation was titled “Life”, said he got a call at about 2am to receive a news that shattered his life but that he still had to make it Johnson’s funeral.

Explaining that he ought not to have come for the event because of his wife’s sudden demise, Ighodalo said if he had been told that he would be at such event a week earlier he would not have believed.

“He was ill no doubt but nobody believed we will be here today for his burial,” the newspaper quoted Ighodalo as saying in a video of the event circulating online.

On his death of his wife of 13 years, Ighodalo said, “This time yesterday if anybody had told me today would be what it is I will not believe. But this is how life is. Life is nothing.”

In the brief exhortation, the pastor further said, “Everywhere is tensed, confused, frightening, disturbing. Life is a mystery. There is no human being who can say to you that they fully understand life. No matter how wise we are, like Solomon, we can’t understand life.

“We see in part; we prophesy in part; we see darkly. But it will come to a time when we will see clearly. We don’t have control over most things in life. We have no control over who our parents are. We have no control over where we were born. You have no control of your complexion, your race and your height. We don’t have control over or weight. Nobody has control over life.”