The year 2018 marked the 40th anniversary of the founding of the ASUU. As has been seen, during these forty years, Nigeria had experienced a great deal of political and societal unrest, and by any standards the history of the ASUU has been an eventful one. The formation of ASUU came at a time when the oil boom in Nigeria was beginning to decline and when the country was faced with the consequences of the failure of its rulers to utilize oil wealth to support production and a credible welfare system. Military dictatorship had become institutionalized and had eroded many fundamental freedoms in the society. ASUU‟s establishment in 1978 was mainly driven by the need to address the deterioration of education in the country especially under the military rule but the timing of the formation of the union is also indicative of the fact that it emerged into what was already a highly politicized environment. The paper is a review and an opinion based which assesses the relationship of ASUU with Military and Democratic regimes vis-à-vis the government education policies and the application and or respect for institutional autonomy of universities by various regimes in Nigeria. The paper found that ASUU struggles remained and continue to feature irrespective of the different regimes in Nigeria. It also concludes based on available historical records that the military regimes have had a more preponderance of abuse of universities administrative autonomy in comparison with democratic regimes.