Basita Michael: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 29 January 2021: Diamonds are forever, but constitutions are not. No Constitution is meant to last in perpetuity. That is probably why Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison in 1789 and said, “…it may be proved that no society can make a perpetual constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs to the living generation and not to the dead – every constitution then and every law naturally expires at the end of 19 years.” If Jefferson’s thinking is correct, Sierra Leone’s 1991 constitution expired more than a decade ago. At Lomé in 1999, the Government committed to review the constitution, and in 2002 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called for a review of the 1991 constitution. We are way behind schedule.