At long last, the battle has ended. The long hours of sitting and watching programs and news about the American elections are over. It’s a done deal for Donald Trump who likes a wild hippopotamus has trampled on his opponents.

I have been following the American elections like nobody’s business. For several months it has been one of the reasons why DStv continues to make money from me. I am not alone.  I know that many Ghanaians, a good number of them ordinary Joe Schmos, who on an ordinary day cared less about US politics all of a sudden became experts in US politics.

I can understand why many Ghanaians were interested. I guess the average people were interested in getting Trump defeated for their own selfish reasons. Many people see America as their dreamland and so nobody needed a man who will introduce policies that will tighten immigration laws.

Others have their relatives in the US and they still looked forward to receiving their remittances which are used to supplement their incomes. The politicians are more interested in the foreign policies of the candidates. African leaders still want their grants, loans, and handouts so the most African-friendly President America got the better it is for them.

I have blown away when I got to learn that Ghana was the number two country with highest searches about the US elections. I wish we would use that same energy to solve our own internal developmental issues.

My personal interest in the US elections is varied. I was personally originally baptized into the election craze with the battle between Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The long and painful battle was very tiring and draining even for those of us outside their jurisdictions.

Alongside this was the competition amongst the Republican candidates who were initially 17 but eventually whittled down to 3 and 1 finally.

I wasn’t the only person who was interested in this elections. I know many people who were watching and checking the news as if they were American citizens. 

I had friends and family members who could not sleep without catching up on CNN and programs like Political Mann, Fareed Zakaria GPS. After working hours, we followed the debates and analysis on TV and online. 

Programs like Amanpour, CNN Marketplace, African Voices, World Sports were no longer attractive. Unless there were a Hillary and Trump we could not be bothered.

I must say that this was not the first elections that we have closely monitored. We showed a lot of interest in the last two elections which had Obama vying for the Presidency. As the first black person to win the Democratic candidacy our interest and prayers for him were on high alert. We just had to get connected one way or the other. With our powers combined like Captain Planet, we had to stay charged and glued together with the Americans to pray for Obama’s victory.

But the renewed interest in this year’s elections is unprecedented.  My own curiosity in this particular elections was for different reasons. I had seen and heard about Donald Trump and was really fascinated about how he was going to carry out his campaign.

My greatest interest though was in Hillary Clinton who I had grown to admire over time. As a woman, I wanted so badly to see Hillary win. With 178 countries in the world and only 13 female Presidents, I was waiting anxiously to see one more female leader being added to this prestigious and exclusive club.

My second and perhaps the more pressing interest I had was for my own professional learning. I positioned myself as a student. As a Communications person, I wanted to see and analyze the candidates messaging and how they impacted their audiences. I wanted to hear how the Communications teams crafted their stories and positioned their candidates.

I just craved to see how they were going to juggle through the muddy waters. I was desperately hungry to see how Trump’s team explained his “so called unpresidential” behaviors, mannerisms and utterances and how Hillary’s team was going to explain away her scandals.

As a person with a Sociology background, I was also curious to learn more about the American culture during the elections and how the entire society was going to respond to these two unconventional contenders who contending to lead the world’s greatest country.  

I was really fascinated to see how Donald Trump bullied the Republican Presidential candidates into submission and how Hillary sadly wrenched the heart of many young people who loved Sanders passionately.  It was unbelievable how Trump’s contenders dropped like ripe pawpaw being plugged off a tree by hungry young men.

For me, the elections was a melting point for both sociology and communications. It was a fantastic combination to watch the behavior of an old man who knew the deep-seated feelings of his audience gave them a message that appealed to them. Never mind how he is going to achieve it all his promises; that is another matter.

So Donald Trump has won the elections and he did it because the people who mattered most believed in his message. They trusted him more than the other contenders and they had confidence that he was the best person to take them to “paradise”.

So sadly, the topsy-turvy battle for the US Presidency has ended but the profound interest in the Presidency has only just begun. I am definite that we will still hang around to see what a Donald Presidency looks like. That is the real deal.