Nigeria’s president and his main challenger have blamed each other for the last-minute postponement of the country’s election, delayed just five hours before polls were due to open.

Millions of Nigerians who had planned to vote woke up to the news on Saturday that the independent electoral commission (INEC) had deemed holding the poll “no longer feasible”. It will now be held on 23 February, INEC said.

The opposition said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had instigated the delay.

“Their plan is to provoke the public, hoping for a negative reaction, and then use that as an excuse for further anti-democratic acts,” said Atiku Abubakar, the People’s Democratic party’s presidential candidate, urging voters to come out in greater numbers next weekend.

Buhari said he was deeply disappointed after the electoral commission had “given assurances, day after day and almost hour after hour that they are in complete readiness for the elections. We and all our citizens believed them.”

People all over the country expressed their disappointment. Many will now not be able to vote, having travelled especially to their states of origin, and needing to get back to work.

“The election was cancelled on election day. That’s Nigeria for you,” said Wole Jimoh, who had been watching the news at home in Lagos, the economic capital, when the 3am announcement was made. “People will have to cancel weddings for this.”

Some voters in the northern city of Kano, which was key to Buhari’s victory in 2015, said they would now not bother voting at all, as they were so disillusioned.

“We’re disappointed. People had suspended their activities to make sure their vote was counted – and at the 11th hour it was postponed. I don’t think it was really a problem of logistics,” said Sagir Bashir, a computer science student. “It’s two people with power and resources trying to beat their way through the process.”

Many streets in Kano were deserted on Saturday morning. Ibrahim Fegge arrived at Kano’s railway station early to join the expected queue, but found it deserted except for some guinea fowl, goats, and a woman making tea.

“I was going to vote,” Fegge said. “I’ve just called my friends and told them [about the postponement]. They didn’t believe me. Everyone was ready.”

On Friday night, hundreds of temporary workers recruited to help with the election slept in the street outside Kano’s electoral offices. But by 9am they had all gone home.

“Materials received across the country in some states were not delivered to the state offices – that’s one of the reasons [for the delay]. If we continue, there’ll be more confusion, that’s why we need to sort things out,” said Riskuwa Arab-Shehu, the resident electoral commissioner of Kano.

The Kano state governor, Umar Ganduje, was secretly filmed stuffing bundles of dollars for alleged kickbacks for contracts into his robes in a video released last year. But the real power in Kano state lies with former governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, who endorsed Buhari in 2015 but switched to supporting Atiku last year. This has implications for Kano that could swing the result.

“Seventy percent of people do what Kwankwaso says,” said Aminu Shehu, a teacher who voted for Buhari in the last election but was planning on voting for Atiku this time. “Many of us make up our own minds, but what Kwankwaso says is always good.”

There were a number of security incidents across the country the day before the election.

A few hours before the postponement announcement, members of the extremist group Boko Haram attacked a neighbourhood in Maiduguri in the north-east, killing eight people. Another 66 were killed in Kaduna – also on Friday – with Buhari saying he was “pained beyond words”.