📖 ABSTRACT/OVERVIEW
This study conducted a critical discourse analysis of national information policy documents produced by the Federal Government of Nigeria between 2010 and 2024. Information policies shape the infrastructure, governance, and equity dimensions of information access, and critical analysis of their discursive construction reveals underlying assumptions, power relations, and ideological orientations that may otherwise remain invisible. A critical discourse analysis framework drawing on Fairclough's three-dimensional model was applied to fourteen official policy documents, including the National Information and Communications Technology Policy, Freedom of Information Act implementation guidelines, and digital literacy strategy frameworks. Intertextual and interdiscursive analysis was supplemented by interviews with senior policy actors and civil society information advocates. The analysis revealed a consistent privileging of economic instrumentalism and digital infrastructure metrics over social justice, indigenous knowledge equity, and participatory governance in information policy discourse. Marginalised communities and non-English speaking populations were systematically absent from policy subject positions. The study makes an original contribution to information policy scholarship and to critical theory application in Nigerian library and information science research. Keywords: critical discourse analysis, information policy, Nigeria, Fairclough, information equity.
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