Nigeria, March 5 -- As voters in Niger join those in 28 other states on Saturday to elect the next class of governors, the race in this north-central state will be between two familiar rivals.

Seven states are not participating in the exercise as their governorship elections have fallen outside the main electoral season due to successful petitions against the election of some of their governors at various times in the past.

For the record, 31 parties will be fielding candidates in the Niger governorship election on Saturday.

Out of the 31 candidates, two are women - Aisha Mamhud and Abdulsalam Aisha, representing Change Advocacy Party (CAP) and Labour party (LP) respectively.

The race, however, will be between the candidates of the tw...