If it were years gone by, Captain Amadou Sanogo would have made the Osu Castle his first stop to announce his arrival as the latest member of the league of young coup makers and to derive inspiration from the chief guest of the colonial fort which is serving as Ghana’s presidential palace. Our Flt Lt J.J. Rawlings set the pace on June 4, 1979 when he announced the formation of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) to take over from President Hilla Limann and his People’s National Party to launch what the architects themselves described as a house-cleaning exercise. His earlier attempt on May 15, 1979 had fizzled out. Thanks to a few rebellious soldiers, led by then Captain Boakye Djan, Rawlings, who was then in lawful custody, regained his freedom and made the takeover announcement on the only radio station in the country at the time. The floodgates were opened, and taking inspiration from the Rawlings experience, Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, then 29, struck in the early hours of April 12, 1980 and swept President William Tolbert Jnr from power in Liberia. Tolbert and about 17 of his ministers and top government officials paid the supreme price in a bloody execution which cast dark shadows on African politics. Sgt Doe went ahead to legitimise his administration with constitutional elections in 1986 and stayed in office until 1990 when he himself became a victim of a bloody revolt and got assassinated. On December 31, 1981, Flt Lt Rawlings, with the sweetness of power just drying from his lips, made a second successful return to make a case that it was very easy for junior officers, including even those in retirement, to take over power with nonchalant ease. This time he was not in a hurry. He spent 11 good years at the helm of affairs as a military ruler before democratising his stay with elections in 1992 and served another eight years as a constitutional president. The next to pursue this path to glory was Capt Thomas Sankara, who came to power through the usual route – military coup – in 1983 and struck acquaintance with Rawlings, his mentor. He led his country with revolutionary zeal until October 15, 1987 when soldiers, led by Capt Blaise Compaore, overthrew and assassinated him. Capt Compaore had since legitimised his stay and is still in office. On April 22, 1992, a young Sierra Leone Army officer, Capt Valentine E.M. Strasser, who had just turned 25, led aggrieved soldiers on foot to Freetown to protest their unpaid salaries while at the battlefront. President Joseph Seidu Momoh got scared and fled the capital. That was how Strasser became the world’s youngest head of state. He did not waste time to announce himself at the Osu Castle, as Rawlings was seen as the most popular military ruler in the West African sub-region. He held on to power until January 16, 1996 when a group led by Brigadier-General Julius Maada Bio removed him and sent him into exile in neighbouring Guinea. Following what became fashionable in the sub-region, a young soldier, Capt Yahya Jammeh, then 29, led a group of soldiers to overthrow the government of President Dawuda Jawara of The Gambia on July 22, 1994. I could still remember the picture of Jammeh’s lean shoulders buried in an over-bloated military jacket when he arrived at the Kotoka International Airport on his first mission to pay homage to Rawlings, who had then switched from being the Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) to the democratically elected President of the Republic of Ghana. Jammeh had since learnt the tricks of others and consolidated his grip on power by winning constitutional elections in 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011. He carries a long chain of titles. His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh Naasiru Deen, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Chief Custodian of the Sacred Constitution of The Gambia. It appeared that was where that era ended. The doors to these young military officers seemed closed as military coups lost their lustre and stood condemned globally. Africa’s problems had never been solved by soldiers, no matter their genuine declarations and proclamations. A rough democratic path, it has been generally argued, is better than a smooth dictatorship which provides no room for dissent and a multiplicity of ideas out of which consensus could be built. That was why when Capt Sanogo staged his coup on March 22, 2012 to oust President Amadou Toumani Toure, he came against a hard wall of opposition. The reaction of ECOWAS, the AU, the UN and France, the former colonial master, was swift and decisive. “We cannot allow this country endowed with such precious democratic instruments dating back at least two decades, to live history by regressing,” President Allasane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire, who himself came to power backed by the solidarity of ECOWAS and the international community, said. Mali has one of the best democratic credentials since returning to constitutional rule under President Alpha Konare in 1992. Konare served two five-year terms and exited honourably in 2002, to be succeeded by President Toure, who is about completing his second five-year term this year. In fact, presidential elections were scheduled to take place this month. Before that period of stability, Mali, like most other African countries, especially those in West Africa, suffered periods of political instability soon after gaining independence from France in 1960 under President Modibo Keita. For 23 years, Mali was under the dictatorship of General Moussa Traore who, as a young Lieutenant, took over power from President Keita on November 19, 1968. Capt Sanogo used the inaction of the government in the conflict in the north of Mali where Tuareg rebels were said to have routed government positions as justification for the coup. Every coup maker has a justification and the ECOWAS and the international community are not going to be hoodwinked by those excuses. ECOWAS has offered to provide troops to support Mali to fight the Tuareg insurgents and so Capt Sanogo has been given a 72-hour ultimatum which expired yesterday to hand over to the legitimate government of President Toure or face the consequences. Mali is a landlocked country and, therefore, could not have the luxury of receiving fresh supplies from its own ports. It is, therefore, obvious that it cannot stay long without international support. ECOWAS and AU with unanimity and with the cooperation of the UN should be able to suffocate the life out of Capt Sanogo’s government as quickly as possible to prove to the whole world that coup makers are now redundant on the continent. The Bamako virus, as I may call it, should not be given the opportunity to survive, lest it infects the whole sub-region again.