Page 229 - Afrika Must Unite

214 AFRICA MUST UNITE
Venezuelan males, literate and over the age of twenty-one, in the
proportion of one deputy for every 35,000 of population. Each
state is entitled to send at least one deputy. The presidential
term is for five years and, constitutionally, the President cannot
immediately succeed himself. The President is assisted by a
cabinet of ministers and the governor of the federal district. The
nominally autonomous state governments consist of legislative
assemblies composed of deputies elected by ballot for a period of
three years, and for each a president and two vice-presidents
chosen by the legislative assembly for a period of three years.
It has been said that Switzerland is a model of federal govern­
ment. It consists of twenty-two sovereign states or cantons. Two
legislative chambers constitute the apparatus of government.
They are the Senate or Council of States, in which each canton
has equal representation; and the National Council, chosen on
the basis of one member to every 20,000 of the population. The
two bodies form the Federal Assembly. An Executive Council of
seven members is elected by the Federal Assembly for a period
of three years, and one of its members is chosen annually, also
by the Federal Assembly, to be President of the Council. His
powers are no greater than those of his colleagues, although he is
President of the state and represents the nation on all ceremonial
occasions. The constitution provides that not more than one
councillor can come from any one canton, which carries the
federal principle into the structure of the executive. The Federal
Council is responsible to the Federal Assembly, but it does not
resign if its policy is rejected by the legislature. O f a coalition
character, it more nearly represents a council of perm anent
heads of departm ent than the cabinet of a parliam entary system.
In order to improve effectively and quickly the serious damage
done to Africa as a result of imperialism and colonialism, the
emergent African States need strong, unitary States capable of
exercising a central authority for the mobilization of the national
effort and the co-ordination of reconstruction and progress. For
this reason, I consider that even the idea of regional federations
in Africa is fraught with many dangers. There is the danger of
the development of regional loyalties, fighting against each
other. In effect, regional federations are a form of balkanization
on a grand scale. These may give rise to the dangerous interplay