By Mohamed Malaam Janneh | To-Taste
+23273621016 | Chief Patron 001415
- ROOTS AND FAMILY LEGACY IN THE SLPP
To understand Hon. Alhaji Musa Tarawally, you must first understand the SLPP itself. His political lineage is deeply entrenched within the party’s foundation.
He is a native of Moyamba District, with mixed Mende, Mandingo and other regional family ties. His grandfather was a founding member of the Sierra Leone People’s Party, and his father served as a close aide to Sierra Leone’s first Prime Minister, Sir Milton Margai.
His romance with the SLPP did not start in old age. It started in 1989, while he was still a secondary school student, as a member of the SLPP Young Generation.
- THE YOUNG GENERATION WARRIOR AND EXILE
Tarawally rose through the SLPP Young Generation in the 1990s as a District Young Generation Leader. He worked alongside legends of the Party – the late S.B. Marah, Teacher Lagao, Dr. Albert Joe Demby, Chief Hinga Norman, Elizabeth Lavalie, Dr. Prince Harding, Momodu Koroma, Dr. Alpha Wurie and myself, Mohamed Malaam Janneh, among others, to bring the late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah to power in 1996.
When the AFRC junta overthrew the Kabbah government, Tarawally went into exile with President Kabbah and worked hard to restore the SLPP government back to power in 1998. He was part of the SLPP Strategic Planning Committee that worked with Dr. Prince Harding and others to win over 70% of votes for the SLPP in the 2002 elections.
- BUSINESSMAN AND HUMANITARIAN
Before politics, Tarawally is described as a self-employed Business Executive with over 30 years of governance and private sector experience. After his studies, he established a construction company through which he won infrastructure contracts and employed most of his former colleagues.
During the civil war, he engaged in humanitarian services and studied leadership, human development and cooperative development at Human Development International (HDI). He established the NGO – Advocate for Human Development Toward Self Reliance of Sierra Leone (AHDSS), which organized one hundred cooperative societies, mostly women across Sierra Leone, training grassroots in small scale businesses.
This humanitarian success became his political platform to represent his constituency in Parliament.
- PARLIAMENTARIAN (2002-2007)
He served as Moyamba District Chairman and Member of Parliament from 2002 to 2007. As an MP, he served on several committees, presented motions, debated bills in the interest of the country and was fearlessly committed through a Parliamentary caucus to increase salaries and improve conditions of service for MPs, including issuance of Diplomatic Passports.
Supporters credit him as being part of efforts that helped restore the SLPP government in the late 1990s and secure a strong performance in 2002.
- A COMPLEX POLITICAL JOURNEY: SLPP – APC – CDP – SLPP
Tarawally has a long and complex political career spanning the SLPP, APC and CDP.
After the SLPP lost power in 2007, he accepted senior posts in the APC government of former President Ernest Bai Koroma: Resident Minister South, Minister of Internal Affairs (2010-2013), and Minister of Lands, Country Planning and the Environment. Those years still divide opinion. Supporters say he protected SLPP interests from inside; critics call it defection.
In the lead-up to the 2018 elections, he contested the presidency under the Citizens Democratic Party (CDP) banner. After the first round, he supported the SLPP’s Julius Maada Bio in the runoff, a move widely credited by his supporters as contributing to Bio’s victory.
He maintains that he formally resigned from the CDP in 2018 with a resignation letter dated 15 June 2018, and has since neither paid dues nor attended CDP activities. He was re-admitted to the SLPP around 2022 without preconditions.
- THE RETURN AND GRAND CHIEF PATRON
Since his return, Tarawally has presented himself as a returned SLPP loyalist, Grand Chief Patron and major financial contributor to party offices and campaigns. He points to his participation as an accredited National Delegate at the party’s 2025 National Delegates Conference at Bintumani where he voted, his membership dues fully paid through 2028, and his financial support for campaign activities and construction of SLPP offices across the country.
- AGENDA MT, VISION 2028
In recent years, Tarawally has positioned himself as an SLPP flagbearer aspirant ahead of the 2028 elections under the banner of “Agenda MT, Vision 2028”.
His strategy is grassroots. He has secured endorsements from some constituency secretaries(NaCoS), Young Generation Leaders, Women Leaders across the 132 constituencies and the latest unanimous declaration from the constituency Chairmen and strong support in Moyamba.
He has launched multipurpose cooperative schemes for women and youths in several districts including but not limited to Bo, Kono, Port Loko, Kailahun, Kenema, Bombali Western Area, Koinadugu and Falaba, and engaged in several philanthropic activities.
His 2026 message from Dubai to his group “Women and Men in Action 4 Hon. Alhaji Musa Tarawally” is consistent: unity, resilience, tolerance, grassroots mobilisation, peaceful engagement, and working constructively with the current National Executive.
- THE CURRENT DISPUTE
The SLPP National Chairman, Sir Jimmy Batilo Songa, who was elected at the party’s 14th National Delegates Conference in 2025, recently ordered Tarawally to stop presenting himself as a Party member or presidential aspirant.
Tarawally has strongly rejected that position, maintaining that he remains a member of the SLPP, will not abandon his bid for the flagbearer position, and is prepared to pursue legal remedies over what he describes as damage to his reputation.
This dispute tests how the ruling Party handles internal challenge, how it reads its own constitution, and whether the Political Parties Regulation Commission will be involved.
CONCLUSION: THE MAN TO WATCH
Whether you see him as a prodigal son or a strategic bridge-builder, Hon. Alhaji Musa Tarawally remains one of the most experienced, resilient and grassroots-connected politicians in Sierra Leone today. A businessman, humanitarian, former MP, former Internal Affairs Minister, and now Grand Chief Patron and 2028 flagbearer aspirant — his story is the story of the SLPP’s own turbulence and endurance.
As one publication noted: “Tarawally embodies hope and nationalism, positioning himself as a vital force for Sierra Leone’s future”.