By Fr. Anthony Adetayo

The Annual General Meeting of Nigeria Catholic Diocesan Priests Association (NCDPA) took place in Calabar Ecclesiastical Province, at Calabar town. This happened precisely between Monday 24^th and Friday 28^th October 2022 with a theme “The Imperative of effective evangelization through inclusiveness”

The Director of Pastoral Agent Department, Rev. Fr. Augustine A. Okochi delivered the message of the Liaison Bishop; Most Rev. Valerian Okeke, where the Bishop welcomed the priests all over Nigeria and advices them to learn submission to their Bishops as times are changing and there is much more they can do in creative obedience. He prayed for successful deliberations.

There were two other talks delivered on the second day that bother around the participation of Priests and the participation of the Laity in this new electoral dispensation.

On the third day, there was an interactive session among priests and the fourth day had the business meeting of the association.

At the conclusion of the business meeting, they had an august visitor in the person of Peter Obi; the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party who is a Catholic by profession of faith

Strongly in their resolution, they condemn abuse of human right requiring a change of the human behaviour and conversion. They insisted inclusiveness must be strong as they plan for the elections coming in 2023. Below is the summary of their resolutions.

Resolutions of the Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests

1. We shall use our resources and structures to mobilize all members of Christ faithful to elect competent leaders.

2. We commit to closeness to our people to promote talents development

3. We respect the pulpit only for proclamation of the word of God and not partisan politics.

4. We recommend government to begin plan to help victims of flood disaster and work at avoiding it for the future.

5. We shall cooperate with Catholic Bishops to educate our people about the importance of 2023 and the electoral processes