The country’s election commission said it was delaying the vote to 23 February due to unspecified “challenges”, amid reports that voting materials had not been delivered to some areas.
The delay is expected to spark anger in Africa’s most populous nation and largest democracy after many people had relocated for the chance to vote.
The presidential election is now due to take place on 23 February
Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said: “This was a difficult decision to take but necessary for successful delivery of the elections and the consolidation of our democracy.”
A review of logistics led the commission to conclude that going ahead with the election as planned was “no longer feasible,” he said.
Nigerians sit at the entrance of a polling station in the town of Gombi
Nigeria also postponed its presidential election in 2015 because of deadly insecurity in the northeast of the country, which remains under threat from Islamic extremists.
More than 84 million voters had been expected to head to the polls on Saturday, in what is seen as a close and heated race between President Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar, a billionaire former vice president.
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Atiku Abubakar has campaigned on the theme of ‘Let’s Make Nigeria Work Again’
Both men have pledged to work for a peaceful election even as their supporters, including high-level officials, have caused alarm with warnings against foreign interference and allegations of rigging.
Mr Buhari made history when he came to power in 2015 with the first defeat of an incumbent Nigerian president.
That election was hailed as one of the most transparent and untroubled ever in Nigeria, which has seen deadly post-vote violence in the past.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari is bidding for a second term
Mr Buhari’s term has been marked by a crash in global oil prices that spun Nigeria’s economy into a rare recession, from which it only emerged in 2017.
Unemployment shot up and the country passed India as the nation with the most people living in extreme poverty. More than 13 million children are said to be out of school.
Many Nigerians also worry about Mr Buhari himself after he spent more than 150 days outside the country for an unspecified medical treatment.
In December, he bizarrely denied rumours he had died following a period of ill health and had been replaced by a Sudanese clone.
Nigerian leader: ‘I am not a clone!’
Meanwhile, Mr Abubakar has followed in the footsteps of US President Donald Trump by campaigning on the theme of “Let’s Make Nigeria Work Again”.
He has vowed to apply his business acumen to privatise Nigeria’s state oil company and lift 50 million people out of poverty by 2025, but has faced years of corruption allegations.
