The gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to can­cel this year’s In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade and fire­works has been de­scribed by his­to­ri­an Dr Claudius Fer­gus as a ma­jor loss for the na­tion.

Speak­ing on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew on Mon­day, Dr Fer­gus ques­tioned the re­place­ment of the pa­rade with a na­tion­al day of prayer and re­flec­tion. The UNC-led ad­min­is­tra­tion cit­ed se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns for high-pro­file of­fi­cials as the rea­son for the change.

Dr Fer­gus avoid­ed com­ment­ing on the po­lit­i­cal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion but said the pa­rade car­ried a sig­nif­i­cance that should not be over­looked.