If you are Nigerian, there is a very good chance you have heard the phrase – ‘see finish’ a good number of times.
So what does ‘see finish’ mean?
‘See finish’ is a pidgin term that loosely translates to ‘to have seen it all’. It is used to describe a situation where two people have become too familiar that the boundary of respect (or tolerance) is pushed. Think of it as a Nigerian way of saying “familiarity breeds contempt.”
In a hypothetical situation, a typical Nigerian girl may say to the man she is dating: “I no blame you. Na see finish”. She is implying that the reason the other party is being disrespectful to her is because they have become too familiar.
Nigerian singer Dapo Tuburna in his recent song titled ‘See Finish’ which featured Mayorkun, sang – “No let them see you finish. They go finish your biscuit – they go finish your sweet. Shakara don end o!”
That part of the lyrics is warning people to avoid ‘see finish’ else others will exhaust all the things that make them interesting (finish your biscuit, sweet) and there will be nothing left to be proud of (shakara done end o).
So is “see finish” truly real?
Maybe or maybe not.
There is a psychological study to prove that familiarity actually breeds contempt, and also another study that counters it.
The first study concluded that a “less is more” effect is real and that ambiguity (lacking information about someone) leads to liking, whereas familiarity (access to more information about someone) can breed contempt.
In the countering study, it is concluded that the correlation between liking someone and the amount of information about them should be zero.
Neither of these two studies was conducted in Nigeria and over here people tend to believe that “see finish” is very real. Nigerians have a flair for overstepping boundaries so the more you give out about yourself, the more that can be used against you.
But it can also work the other way. There have been several verified situations where people became closer and inseparable after learning more about each other.
In conclusion, you shouldn’t be living your life bothered about “see finish”. Chances are that whoever stops liking you after knowing everything about you does not deserve you in the first place – so it is a win for you.
Just like some people say – “If one person starts behaving weird after “seeing you finish”, you can start showing another.” There billions of people in the world, you can never run out!
