JACKAL NEWS —Faruk Omar was already a conman before he started conning donors and Somali journalists. He was sacked but he is still conning donors and journalists and they are tired of being conned. As if that is not enough, Faruk claimed to represent them, only to end up pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars donations meant to boost their welfare that is rated among the worst in the world.

What a brother-in-distress indeed.

That is the brief description how Faruk, who for nine years as the secretary general of National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), burnt midnight oil writing proposal and, as a result, getting funding and then squandering the cash with his cronies.

Even when Mohamed Ibrahim ousted in 2011, Faruk has shamelessly continued misleading donors and for that Somali journalists are bitter. In an exclusive interview with the Jackal News, they lamented his failed leadership worsened their working conditions mainly in the capital Mogadishu, the epicentre of more than two decades of bloodletting, and where majority have opened shop.

“During his tenure, he divided journalists in a way that would only benefit him,” said Ahmed Hersi, who gave up his job to become a businessman. “To suppress the rebellion, he hand-picked a few greedy elements and promised them fortunes and trips to Europe.”

Another journalist threw in, requesting to remain unnamed: “Because he promised money and even take some reporters to exile in Europe, this helped him to stay in office for a long time, but as for responsibility, he did absolutely nothing.”

Several journalists said the ousted leader, believed to be seeking sorts of asylum in the United Kingdom, organised a series of dubious training workshops and other conferences in order to extort unsuspecting donors with claims that he was concerned with the reporters’ welfare. “Ah, those meetings were just meant to extort money,” said one who attended the forum.

But over the years, internal rebellion threatened to tear apart the NUSOJ, prompting Faruk to send a few hundreds of dollars to silence the noisy elements threatening his “looting spree.”

International Federation for Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, two of the biggest media watchdogs in the world, were victims of Faruk’s deception, bankrolling some of his travel and publish a series of alarmist reports that he compiled from a his laptop. “Well, those organisations may not take the blame directly, but they facilitated him unnecessarily.”

But his attempt to penetrate the Netherlands-based Pressnow and the New York-based Committee To Protect Journalists failed since the two organisations have been reacted coolly to his alarmist reports and shady proposals for funding.

It was not clear whether the donors were complicit or it was some elements within their offices who made the looting possible.

Faruk’s background is shady, or so says the many sources that sat down with the Jackal News. He has never worked as a journalist in Somalia any other part of the world. But Mogadishu insiders, with an uncanny ability to lift any veil, said Faruk dropped out of out of high school, hustled in the dusty capital until he worked out a dubious high school diploma from the shady Bakara Market.

With savvy street credential, he found his way into Mogadishu University where reportedly dropped out away and, again live tough in the mean and ruthless and ruined streets that were once Italian-style boulevards. “All his academic credentials ate suspect; they cannot pass close scrutiny,” retorted a veteran Somali journalist who knows Faruk for many years.

Here, accounts differ depending on who you speak to. One such account indicates that Faruk founded a new website calledrunkinet.com, worked for 17 days as a journalist before he melted away, resurfacing later as a candidate for the office of NUSOJ’s secretary general. While in office, he wrote a series of proposals soliciting for cash to help the besieged Somali journalists. When the money came, and indeed it came, he swallowed the bulk of and dished out a few dollars to his friends, with an interlude of workshops and seminars that were nothing other than talking shops.

Oddly, Faruk’s doggedness or perhaps smooth tongue rewarded him with the position of Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) chair in May 2010. Omar Faruk Osman is also the Secretary General of Eastern African Journalists Association (EAJA).

But his path to the rank has been without hurdles, since, for once. Nobody cared probe credentials of a journalist from Somalia. After all, it’s a portrait of brotherhood to have a Somali journalist chair a pan-African panel, indeed, these sound good, superb, until you sit down with Faruk and ask him how many times he balanced NUSOJ books or trace his background honestly.

But through well-wishers, Ibrahim has managed to breathe new life into Somalia journalists’ programme. “I am ready to work all my life for the Somali journalists and ultimately improve their welfare,” he told the Jackal News.

When Ibrahim took office, there were outstanding arrears in rent, security fees and other sanitation charges, and sources, said Faruk, did not bother to clear these costs when he left office. “Now, we have cleared and I hope that donors can come and assist us.”

Faruk could not be reached for comment on the allegations that are bound to soil is reputations. Jackal News advises donors to help these suffering Somali reporters. Please.

http://thejackalnews.com/media-news/newspapers/1246-conman-omar-faruk-conned-somali-journalists-donors-and-keeps-conning