Critical Discourse Analysis of National Health Education Policy in Nigeria: Power, Ideology, and Practice Gaps

National health education policy in Nigeria embeds ideological assumptions about health knowledge, community agency, and the role of the state that have rarely been subjected to critical scrutiny. This study applied critical discourse analysis to examine the power relations, ideological constructions, and practice gaps embedded in Nigeria's national health education policy frameworks. Policy documents, national health education guidelines, and Federal Ministry of Health communications produced between 2019 and 2024 were systematically collected and analysed. Supplementary data were gathered through 40 elite interviews with health education policy makers, programme directors, professional body leaders, and civil society advocates across Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Enugu, and Port Harcourt. Foucauldian discourse analysis and Fairclough's three-dimensional critical discourse analysis model were applied. Results revealed that national health education policy discourse predominantly constructed communities as passive recipients of expert health knowledge, marginalising indigenous knowledge systems and community agency. Power asymmetries between biomedical institutions and community health education practitioners embedded in policy texts reproduced structural inequities in health education delivery. Significant gaps between policy aspirations and programme realities were documented. The study makes an original critical theoretical contribution to Nigerian health policy scholarship and advocates for participatory, rights-based health education policy reform. Keywords: critical discourse analysis, health education policy, Nigeria, power, ideology